Guiding questions

  • What generic legal frameworks are there for 3D reconstruction?

  • What types of licenses are there?

Basic terms

  • Copyright

  • Open licenses

  • Closed licenses

  • Public domain

10.1 Intellectual Property

Intellectual Property rights (IP) comprise a wide range of legal rights related to intellectual works. The most relevant concepts are:

  • Copyright is the “exclusive right to produce copies and to control an original literary, musical, or artistic work, granted by law for a specified number of years” (Collins Dictionary 2022). Some other types of intellectual output such as computer code are borderline cases and protected in some nations. When an individual creates and intellectual work, that author is granted a copyright. A main distinction is whether copyright is transferable (as in the US) or is not transferable and belongs to the author (as in most European states).

  • Usage rights can be granted by copyright holders to users of a specific work and define types and modalities of this usage. These rights can be granted on an individual basis or via standard licenses, offering predefined conditions to users. Licenses may be closed, or open to allow unpaid use under certain conditions, e.g., naming the author.

  • Potentially, 3D modeling can affect rights, e.g., personality rights (in cases of digitizing or modeling humans) or security (in cases of military objects or 3D printable weapons).

10.2 Legal Aspects

With regard to media, there are several legal aspects to 3D modeling. The most relevant are copyright and design laws [1, 2]:

  • While older cultural heritage objects are now in the public domain [3], younger objects may be subject to copyright. Especially for museum objects, other legislation on property rights may effectively prevent 3D digitization without an exhibitor’s permission [4].

  • Reproduction media such as photographs potentially become an original object and add intellectual property for both copyright and design laws. The legal situation is uneven, not least with regard to the level of originality necessary (especially in the digitization of analog heritage objects, e.g., plans) to gain intellectual property rights for media depicting or digitizing a cultural heritage object [5, 6].

  • A 3D model may be subject to copyright [7]. It is currently being debated whether 3D digitization fulfills the requirements for being original or is simply copying and therefore creates nonoriginal works [8]. Although the situation for 3D reconstructions seems more clear, as substantial originality is inherent, not all national legislation sees reconstructions as original work [9].

  • 3D printing is subject to specific legislation. Specific overviews about copyright in the EU for 3D printing date from 2010 [10], 2014 [11], and 2019 [12].

Since legislation is implemented very much depending on the national situation, there are various national laws, e.g., for Germany maintained by NFDI4Culture for imagery [13] or web usage [14]. Another main distinction concerns the use of restricted media for commercial purposes or in research and education. In most national legislation there are exceptions for the latter cases and less restricted legislation applies.

10.3 Licenses: Open, Closed, or Public?

Recent developments at the EU level [15]—the Open Data Directive [16] and the Digital Single Market Directive [17]—provide political and legal framework conditions for digital humanities and digital heritage research. Despite this EU-wide attempt, the current situation on a member state level is very uneven [15].

Further reading: The FAIR Principles and open science

Co-production and user-generated content enable cultural innovation. Many institutions and members of scientific communities therefore do not limit themselves to the digital and open provision of cultural objects and data. Fundamental principles for this are that the data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR). These require rich and interoperable metadata, high quality and resolution, open interfaces and open (data exchange) formats. 3D objects and data should be made available following the FAIR principles, both technically and legally [18]. The aim of this paradigm is to support the use of research data or works by others without restriction: specific guidelines to ensure FAIR research [19].

Another main distinction is between open and closed licenses. Creative content under closed licenses cannot be used without a specifically granted permission and in most cases payment to the license holder. Open licenses refer to creative content (media, software etc.) which the general public can access and use under certain conditions without having to explicitly ask for permission. Various open-source licensing models predefine conditions under which creative content can be used. Creative Commons (CC), a major open license, predefines modalities which enable everyone to use content under the same conditions and free of charge (Fig. 10.1). In contrast to closed and open source, public domain means creative works to which no intellectual property rights or copyright exist. Usually, public domain is coupled to periods—in most cases works enter the public domain 70 years after the death of the author. Public domain goods can be used by anyone for any purpose without a license or obligation to pay.

Fig. 10.1
A table with 7 columns and 7 rows. The types of creative common licenses are present. B Y-S A has the checkmarks for sharing, author attribution, permitted commercial usage, editing, and sharing only under the same license.

Types of creative commons licenses [20]

Full size image

A specific facet of open versus closed content is open versus closed source—the legal and technical availability and reusability of software code or files. Closed source code (e.g., programs or 3D model files) is not publicly available or readable (e.g., proprietary software). In contrast, open-source files are publicly available and can be used under an open license.

Summary

3D reconstructions are linked to different legal rights, mostly concerning intellectual property. Creative works by other authors use as sources are subject to copyright, which can also be potentially obtained by the author(s) of a 3D reconstruction. Licenses can be closed or open—the first are paid, the second can be used for free. Open licensing modes—esp. Creative Commons—are well established now.

Concepts

  • Copyright is the “exclusive right to produce copies and to control an original literary, musical, or artistic work, granted by law for a specified number of years” [21].

  • Creative Commons (CC) are different mixable standard license agreements, through which license holders can define the legal conditions for distributing and sharing their creative content free of charge.

Key literature

  • Hoeren, T. (2021). Internetrecht: De Gruyter [14].

  • Fischer, V. and G. Petri, Bildrechte in der kunsthistorischen Praxis—ein Leitfaden.—Zweite, überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. 2022, Heidelberg: arthistoricum [13].

  • Ulutas Aydogan, S., Münster, S., Girardi, D., Palmirani, M., & Vitali, F. (2021). A Framework to Support Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage Studies Research, Cham [15].