Doug McCarthy
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culturedoug.bsky.social
Doug McCarthy
@culturedoug.bsky.social
900 followers 310 following 190 posts
Museums, digital strategy, open access. Cat enthusiast. Senior Open Content Specialist at Open Future.

douglasmccarthy.com

#Museums #Libraries #Archives #Copyright #OpenGLAM #DigitalStrategy
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culturedoug.bsky.social
This Friday, I'll be joining a Copyright Literacy webinar to talk about art, copyright and the public domain. 🌻

Join me, Ana Enriquez, Megan Eve Kilvington, Diane Crawford-Leighton and Sarah Brear online. Jane Secker and Chris Morrison will be our hosts.

copyrightliteracy.org/2025/11/10/w...
Title slide of 'The Sunflower is Mine. Paradoxical Patterns in the Public Domain' A talk at Icepops 2025 by Doug McCarthy.
November 10, 2025 at 3:11 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Cursed machine still trying to download the U2 album from 2014. I will not be free in this lifetime.
Cursed machine still trying to download the U2 album from 2014.
November 6, 2025 at 2:45 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
on brand
October 28, 2025 at 12:40 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
ultra-nano version for people running to catch a bus

#Icepops25
September 10, 2025 at 2:14 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
The slides of my Icepops talk are now online at my website: douglasmccarthy.com/presentations/

Thanks to my fellow speakers and everyone who attended yesterday, it was a brilliant day (and night 🎤). Until next time, @jsecker.bsky.social!
'The Sunflower is Mine. Paradoxical Patterns in the Public Domain' A talk at Icepops 2025 by Doug McCarthy, 9 September 2025. All content © Doug McCarthy, CC BY 4.0, unless otherwise stated
September 10, 2025 at 12:02 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
En route to Manchester 🚄 ✈️ to attend the 6th edition of Icepops, the copyright festival with a smile on its face.

I'll present new research on museums, copyright and the public domain. 🌻

There will be sunflowers, there will be memes. Slides to follow.

#Icepops2025 #OpenGLAM #Museums #Copyright
'The Sunflower is Mine. Paradoxical Patterns in the Public Domain' A talk at Icepops 2025 by Doug McCarthy, 9 September 2025. All content © Doug McCarthy, CC BY 4.0, unless otherwise stated.
September 9, 2025 at 6:23 AM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Q. How was your summer?
A.
Seated Man, 1905–6 Paul Cezanne. Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
July 4, 2025 at 6:31 AM
culturedoug.bsky.social
The King will see you now.
ISAAC OLIVER (C. 1565-1617) Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia (1596-1662) when Princess Elizabeth 1613 Watercolour on vellum laid on playing card (the suit of diamonds) | 5.3 x 4.3 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 420044 https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/2/collection/420044/elizabeth-queen-of-bohemia-1596-1662-when-princess-elizabeth COPYRIGHT https://www.rct.uk/about/policies/copyright
July 4, 2025 at 6:13 AM
culturedoug.bsky.social
don’t be a bad Bohemian
July 3, 2025 at 4:18 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Just discovered that www.culturegrid.org.uk redirects to
museumdata.uk.

Now feeling centuries old.
Skeletons and écorché figures in various positions, with proportions marked. Line engraving by G.F. Ferrero, 1845. Ferrero, Giovanni Francesco, active 1845. Date: 1845 Reference: 564257i Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/qwesaprg/images?id=g8b8qtdg
July 3, 2025 at 2:44 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
This section stood out to me.
July 2, 2025 at 12:13 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Me: 🥵
Cat: You think YOU'RE hot?
July 1, 2025 at 1:17 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Pretty sure I saw you wearing this in St Andrews circa '95:
www.etsy.com/listing/4321...
June 25, 2025 at 8:45 AM
culturedoug.bsky.social
En garde, I’ll let you try my Wu-Tang style
June 20, 2025 at 10:38 AM
culturedoug.bsky.social
UI
April 9, 2025 at 1:57 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
NEW 🐣

The editors of the Italian open access journal Engramma invited me to contribute an article for a special issue on copyleft and internet piracy.

'Museums and the Enclosure of the Public Domain in the Digital Age' is now online at engramma.it/eOS/index.ph...

#museums #copyright #publicdomain
Cover of Italian open access journal Engramma, issue 222, March 2025 Online article 'Museums and the Enclosure of the Public Domain in the Digital Age', by Douglas McCarthy, available at https://lnkd.in/eUm6nzY8
April 7, 2025 at 9:04 AM
culturedoug.bsky.social
That would be an overly optimistic assumption, alas, going by Historic England's usual practice. Even when HE does not claim copyright in its digital images of public domain works, its Terms of Use and pricing structure are highly restrictive:
historicengland.org.uk/images-books...
Copyright and related rights All content, designs, text, graphics, software compilations and source codes on this website are the copyright of Historic England and/or its content providers. Reproduction of part or all of the contents of this website in any form is prohibited other than for individual use only and may not be recopied and shared with a third party except as set out in User-submitted content, below. The permission to recopy by an individual does not allow for incorporation of material or any part of it in any work or publication, whether in hard copy, electronic, or any other form. Any other use of the website without prior written consent from Historic England is strictly forbidden.
February 21, 2025 at 9:24 AM
culturedoug.bsky.social
it’s the weekend
Original gouache painting ‘Pagan cats celebrating the summer solstice’ by Cécile Berrubé. Visit https://cecileberrube-shop.com Copyright Cécile Berrubé, all rights reserved.
January 24, 2025 at 4:40 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Enjoy The Value Embodied in This Product
January 21, 2025 at 3:21 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Just found this 2023 story.

What a time to have lived.
Headline: Spanish National Museum Thyssen to Mint Exclusive Collection of Van Gogh NFTs. Olyverse and Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum partner to bring Van Gogh to the metaverse, offering art lovers a new kind of experience. https://decrypt.co/148582/olyverse-and-thyssen-museum-bring-van-gogh-masterpiecemetaverse “Metaverse is something that has come to stay and we will see a lot of developments," he said. “Now we see Apple exploring Metaverse. Meta is competing with Quest Pro, as social networks will evolve into that 3D environment. There is a very bright future for this, the competition has started and we will be there.” Enjoy The Value Embodied in This Product [Van Gogh NFT]
January 21, 2025 at 3:21 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Getting back on the horse.

Slides to follow.

#copyright #licensing #UK #museums #openaccess #openGLAM
Title slide for the presentation 'In perpetuity?The strange digital afterlife of copyright in museums' by Douglas McCarthy.Background Image:Christ in the Realm of the Dead, 1891-1894,by Joakim Skovgaard. Collection: Statens Museum for Kunst. Public domain. Event: https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/whats-on/forthcoming/ecrn-drn-copyright
January 16, 2025 at 11:36 AM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Agentic AI, 1985
Cover art for Little Computer People, also called House-on-a-Disk, a social simulation game released in 1985 by Activision’. Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Computer_People
January 8, 2025 at 4:25 PM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Great listen, cheers.

Agentic AI, 1985
January 7, 2025 at 7:39 AM
culturedoug.bsky.social
Very cool to see this live in the Data Arena!

Thanks @zoesadokierski.bsky.social for the nice photos 📸
December 6, 2024 at 2:58 AM
culturedoug.bsky.social
lo-fi capture of our Hawking Hogarth installation in the awesome Data Arena, University of Technology Sydney
December 5, 2024 at 10:35 PM