Pinar Oruc, University of Manchester
Digitising Cultural Heritage: Clashes with Copyright Law was published by Hart in July 2025.
My book ‘Digitising Cultural Heritage: Clashes with Copyright Law’ is about the role played by copyright law on the digitisation of cultural heritage. It was published in July 2025 by Hart Publishing as part of the Art Law Library Series, carrying the imprint of Institute of Art and Law. It is available Open Access.
Digitisation of cultural heritage is not a new phenomenon, but the speed and scale has significantly increased since the early 2000s. As copyright lawyers, it is easy to assume the subject matter is only old works in public domain, but cultural heritage has a much wider scope encompassing the tangible, intangible and digital. However, when works that are in copyright or works with unclear copyright status are being digitised, these acts infringe the exclusive rights of the author and require the digitising institutions to either relying on copyright defences or seek licensing, neither of them being perfect solutions.
I started thinking about digitisation in 2012/13 when I came across the Authors Guild v Google case, which was ongoing at the time. I was unaware that Google was making copies in partner libraries without permission, and felt conflicted about personally wanting more access to works online, while also putting myself in the position of authors who were not consulted. Once I began my PhD on this topic, it became clear that any discussion of heritage required a deeper understanding of cultural property law and required empirical research in the form of interviews, carried out in 2016-2017. After my PhD, I started working as a postdoctoral researcher on other IP law projects.
When I started thinking about a book and revisited my previous arguments for changing copyright law in this area, I found that despite some positive developments since my PhD, there was still much to be desired, and the importance of digitisation was only going to grow. Several major changes added to the urgency of the book: the need to assess the impact of the EU Directive on Copyright in Digital Single Market and its implementation; legal developments in the UK since Brexit; and new technologies such as artificial intelligence. The pandemic also demonstrated how easy it was to lose access to heritage institutions and made policy makers recognise the urgency for speeding up digitisation efforts. Through my other publications, I have also become more critical of ownership of copies, both in forms of documenting intangible works and digitising tangible works – why/when should the parties making copies be able to control the heritage of others, is it really justified, and what does it mean for repatriation and further uses?
In my book, I establish the problem at hand with two chapters on heritage and copyright, providing a useful basis to readers from different disciplines. The first chapter addresses the scope, ownership and challenges around cultural heritage, relying on cultural property law instruments and academic literature. The second chapter views the process of digitisation through the perspective of copyright, highlighting the implications for subject matter, originality, infringement and defences. I then approach the problem from three angles, framed as ‘clashes’. First is the theoretical incompatibility between cultural property law and copyright law when it comes to ownership of heritage. Copyright law both seeks and establishes an owner, whereas heritage both belongs to everyone and no one. The second clash is in the laws, supported by a comparative analysis of the UK, EU and US, specifically on defences, licensing and rules for more problematic works, highlighting strengths and weaknesses in each jurisdiction. The final clash is in the practice, requiring an analysis of different stakeholder needs and their reactions to existing digitisation projects and lawsuits. This part also relied on empirical research in the form of new interviews with heritage experts in 2023-24, which were helpful for identifying and confirming existing copyright concerns. The book ends with two sets of recommendations: (i) more realistic low impact recommendations include changing and re-interpreting the relevant laws in the chosen jurisdictions, and (ii) a more idealistic high impact recommendation, creation of a new instrument, which would then conflict with existing copyright safeguards and would be challenging to reach a consensus on.
On a personal level, it has been very exciting to work on issues that I am passionate about. Speaking to experts in this sector and learning about the practice has made me realise how most parties do want the best for cultural heritage and the public, but have legal, ethical and practical concerns that shift their priorities. While I still enjoy spending time at libraries and museums, I now find often myself wondering about ownership and copyright.