MUSEUM EXHIBITION VERSUS COPYRIGHT

Abstract

Organisation of exhibitions from the point of view of copyright (Act on Copyright and Related Rights of 4 Feb. 1994, further copyright) is a multifaceted issue. The analysis conducted in the paper boils down to some selected aspects: beginning with the right to display, through exhibition as a separate copyrighted work, up to the exhibition author, namely curator. When purchasing items for collections or acquiring them on the ground of a loan contract, museums should make sure the work can be exploited through public display. Such agreement can be either expressed in the contract (rights or licence transfer) or can be implicit (it can be then assumed that non-exclusive licence with all its limitations has been transferred). Furthermore, the construction of fair use from Art. 32.1 of Act on Copyright can be applicable. An issue apart is the question of exhibition as a separate copyrighted work. It can be a co-authored work in the case when it combines creative efforts of e.g. curator and author of the exhibition layout. The article analyses exhibition understood as a collection of exhibits selected and arranged following a script or presented following a layout in order to fulfil the assumptions of a derivative work (Art. 2 Act on Copyright) or a collection (Art. 3 Act on Copyright). As a result of the assumption that exhibition is a work, the curator becomes an author, thus will have copyright to the created work. Depending on the formal curator-museum relationship, the author’s economic rights shall either be transferred to the museum (employee’s work, specific-task contract with rights transfer or licence granting), or shall exceptionally remain with the author.