Skip to main content
The Collation

Free cultural works! Come get your free cultural works!

It’s official: pictures in the Folger’s Digital Image Collection are now licensed CC BY-SA! That is, they can be used under a Creative Commons Attribution–ShareAlike 4.0 International License, one of the two Creative Commons licenses “approved for free cultural works.” That’s almost 80,000 images, and counting. We’ve already started adding images to Wikimedia Commons for use in Wikipedia and elsewhere, and encourage you to do the same. Here’s the message that now appears at the bottom of every page in the database:

Comments

[…] Häromdagen befriade Folger Shakespeare Library i Washington ungefär 80.000 bilder från upphovsrätten. Bilderna omfattar att ifrån kostymer, brädspel och annonser till illustrationer och gravyrer. Ditt lystmäte kan du tillfredsställa här. […]

80.000 bilder med koppling till Shakespeare fria från upphovsrätten | bearbooks — August 14, 2014

This is very interesting and encouraging. However, I’m unsure what happens if I publish with a commercial press (for example, Palgrave Macmillan) even though there is unlikely to be any profit for either me or the press from what I publish the image in! If the author has to pay a fee to the Folger in such an instance, this effectively means that an image will not be used. Please could you clarify?

Rosemary O'Day — August 14, 2014

[…] Folger Library recently released a number of its images under a Creative Commons license, setting off an excellent Twitter […]

HLS Weekly Roundup | hls — August 15, 2014

The CC BY-SA 4.0 license doesn’t place any restrictions on commercial use (unlike our previous license, which was CC BY-NC, or “Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial). As long as the commercial publisher abides by the terms of the license (see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/legalcode) there’s no fee.

Erin Blake — August 15, 2014

That’s good news indeed, Erin. Thanks very much for the reply and thanks to the Folger for making these images available under this arrangement.

Rosemary O'Day — August 15, 2014

Thank you for this move – much appreciated!

Chris Sakkas — August 15, 2014

[…] Folger Shakespeare Library put out its Digital Image Collection through Creative Commons – […]

Linkubator Sunday Roundup | August 10 – 16 | Library as Incubator Project — August 17, 2014

[…] Free cultural works! Come get your free cultural works! – Pictures in the Folger’s Digital Image Collection are now licensed CC BY-SA! – Folger Shakespeare Library Blog […]

DC/SLA Chapter eNotes August 2014 | DC/SLA — August 17, 2014

[…] Head of Collection Information Services Erin Blake explains, “basically this means you can do whatever you want with Folger digital images as long as you […]

Folger Shakespeare Library Puts 80,000 Images of Literary Art Online, and They’re All Free to Use | Golden Gate Daily — August 21, 2014

[…] Free Cultural Works! Come Get Your Free Cultural Works! […]

This Week’s Top Picks in Imperial & Global History | Imperial & Global Forum — September 8, 2014