Opening Collections, Preserving Rights: Copyright as a Lever towards Digital Transformation of Canadian Museums
Since the 2000s, digital technologies have progressively become embedded in our daily lives, raising growing questions about their ethical and legal implications. Within the context of a digital culture shaped by the rise of artificial intelligence, this phenomenon is transforming our cultural practices and directly impacting the museum sector, particularly as it pertains to the exploration and preservation of collections.
Museums now rely on a wide range of tools and systems, from virtual exhibitions and mobile interfaces to large-scale digitization of collections. While these initiatives help broaden and diversify audiences, they also introduce increased complexity in copyright management, affecting the visual arts sector at multiple levels, from creation to dissemination. Successive waves of digital transformation have notably reshaped access to cultural content as well as the visibility of artworks and artists.
In this context, the overabundance of images available online, combined with a culture of sharing and free access, impacts the market’s demands for image reproduction and, to a lesser extent, the art market itself. The growth in the supply of digital images—particularly for illustration and advertising purposes—has generally been accompanied by downward pressure on prices and on artists’ remuneration.
The Digital Turn in Canadian Museums: Transition and Acceleration in 2020
Around 2020, digital policies in Canadian museums underwent a significant paradigm shift. While earlier initiatives were primarily based on centralized dissemination platforms, the model evolved toward funding digital projects led directly by museum institutions. This transformation is reflected in the repositioning of programs such as Digital Museums Canada, which moved from being a content distributor to supporting the creation of digital content (virtual exhibitions, educational tools, interactive experiences). This shift promotes greater institutional autonomy and encourages innovation at the local level.
At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic acted as a decisive accelerator of this transition. The closure of cultural venues and the loss of revenue forced museums to rapidly turn toward digital tools to sustain their activities and maintain connections with audiences. Virtual visits, online programming, and collection digitization became essential curatorial practices. In response, the federal government increased its financial support to the museum sector, helping to firmly establish digital practices as a core component of museum’s missions.
Institutions are now called upon to adopt rigorous practices to mitigate intellectual property risks, fostering dialogue between museology, law, working conditions, and the fair remuneration of artists. This contributes to building the “social foundation” that makes artistic freedom—frequently invoked in current debates on the status of artists—truly possible.
Copyright: A Structural Pillar for Museums in the Digital Age
In a context where many institutions aim to make their collections accessible online, several issues arise, primarily related to copyright. The most central concern is, of course, the fair remuneration of artists for these uses, but questions also extend to data protection and contract law.
At the core of museum practices, copyright intersects with all institutional activities, whether exhibitions, communications, conservation, or public engagement. It should not be seen as an obstacle, but rather as a key lever for building a “social foundation” that ensures public access to Canadian heritage while respecting artists’ rights.
As a reminder, under Canadian copyright law, the physical ownership of an artwork does not confer any right to digitize or disseminate it. Any online use of a protected work (in Canada, up to 70 years after the artist’s death) requires explicit authorization, based on the rights of reproduction and communication to the public.
To navigate this complex legal framework, institutions must systematically consider three key questions:
The status of the work: Is it still protected or in the public domain?
Permissions: Does the museum hold the necessary rights (through acquisition agreements, donations, or collective licensing)?
Exceptions: Does the intended use fall under a specific legal exception?
While some legal exceptions exist, they remain limited and strictly defined. The solution lies in a proactive approach: integrating copyright management into the acquisition process by clearly identifying rights holders and anticipating not only permissions but also the remuneration conditions associated with digital dissemination.
In France: Collective Licensing and Strong Data Protection
To explore potential solutions and avenues for reflection, the RAAV, CARFAC, and COVA-DAAV discussed the issue with some of their international counterparts. Let us begin with ADAGP, the main visual artists’ copyrights management organisation in France.
The model developed by ADAGP for French museums regulates digital uses of artworks through a system of annual flat-rate licenses, particularly suited to large-scale uses such as online sharing of permanent collections’ databases. This framework primarily targets non-profit cultural and educational institutions, whose websites notably do not generate revenue.
Pricing follows a decreasing scale based on the number of artworks displayed online: the greater the volume of images, the lower the unit cost per artwork, following a predefined grid. This model simplifies rights management for institutions by avoiding negotiation on a per-work basis while ensuring collective remuneration for artists.
At the same time, ADAGP strictly regulates conditions of dissemination to protect artworks. Images must be low resolution (limited size), their access is restricted to identified users (e.g., via registration), and technical measures such as watermarking and download restrictions are imposed.
In the United Kingdom: Licensing Packages and Identification Technologies
The model developed by DACS (Design and Artists Copyright Society) is based on a flexible and modular licensing system designed to regulate digital uses of artworks in museum institutions while also simplifying copyrights management.
At the heart of this system is the Digital Engagement Licence (DEL), an annual license covering a wide range of digital uses, including display on websites, online databases, and various digital platforms used by museums. This license offers a relatively accessible entry price (starting at £50), applicable to a minimum group of works, allowing institutions to operate within a global framework rather than negotiating artwork by artwork. To accommodate institutional realities—such as budget constraints and evolving collections—the license can be extended for up to five years, providing administrative stability.
In parallel, DACS introduced a complementary system for online collections, with a base pricing structure per work (starting at around £10 for initial tiers). This model later evolved into bundled licenses like the DEL to better address institutions’ broader and more complex digital needs.
Finally, DACS relies on technological tools such as the AIR (Artist’s Image Register) system, which uses image recognition and data cross-referencing to identify artworks and rights holders. This type of tool helps automate and secure rights management, facilitating the identification of works in use and strengthening monitoring capacities.
Conclusion
The development of digital technologies is reshaping copyright management in museums, opening up new possibilities for the digital dissemination of artworks while also increasing the risks of devaluing artistic labour. In this context, copyright should not be perceived as an obstacle, but rather as a lever for building a “social foundation” that ensures public access to Canada’s heritage while respecting artists’ rights.
International experience now demonstrates that such a balance is not only possible, but already operational: models exist in which access to digital collections and fair remuneration of artists mutually reinforce one another.
This highlights the need for the visual arts’ sector to make a coordinated effort in order to translate these references into concrete mechanisms adapted to Canadian realities, paving the way for a sustainable structure of copyrights management.
It is therefore timely to consider sustained coordination within the visual arts sector to translate these references into concrete mechanisms adapted to Canadian realities, with a view to structuring practices and rights management in a sustainable way.
Il devient dès lors pertinent d’envisager une concertation soutenue du milieu des arts visuels afin de traduire ces références en dispositifs concrets, adaptés aux réalités canadiennes, dans une perspective de structuration durable des usages et de la gestion des droits.
With these tools and standards in mind, Canada is well equipped with a range of functional models to consider its own, tailored model. Twenty years ago, implementing a mutually beneficial approach would have been perceived as an insurmountable task; today, these various international blueprints demonstrate that organizations, artists, and the public all benefit from accessible virtual collections with ethical and fair remuneration to the visual artists who populate those collections.