UK's National Portrait Gallery Threatens To Sue Wikipedia User

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday July 11, 2009 @02:21AM from the pictures-of-pictures dept.

jpatokal writes "The National Portrait Gallery of London is threatening litigation against a Wikipedia user over his uploading of pictures of some 3,000 paintings, all 19th century or earlier and firmly in the public domain. Their claim? The photos are a 'product of a painstaking exercise on the part of the photographer,' and that downloading them off the NPG site is an 'unlawful circumvention of technical measures.' And remember, the NPG's taxpayer-funded mission is to 'promote the appreciation and understanding of portraiture in all media [...] to as wide a range of visitors as possible!'"

1 of 526 comments (clear)

Re:The law is on London's side by gaspyy · 2009-07-11 04:03 · Score: 1, Troll

OK - it should be easy then. You go to the National Gallery, take 3300 pictures, release them under Creative Commons or public domain and upload them.
It can be done. I've done it. But it's not trivial (hint: avoiding reflections and highlights, correcting perspective & distortion, making sure the colors are accurate).