“Access Points” – Publications of the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”
© Foto: Eberhard Ortland

Digital transformation is fundamentally changing the possibilities and forms of access to cultural goods of all kinds. This raises far-reaching questions about the ethical, legal, economic and political conditions of enabling or restricting access to cultural goods, about the aesthetic implications of different access regimes, the normative basis for curatorial work, and about equitable solutions to access conflicts.

The publication series Access Points presents research  findings, discussion papers and guidelines of the interdisciplinary Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change” at the University of Münster. Its publication languages are English and German.

All publications in this series are peer-reviewed and thoroughly edited to secure highest scholarly standards. They are made available permanently as diamond open access publications, free of charge for readers and authors alike, with the support of the University and State Library of Münster.

ISSN: 3054-4092

AP#3 | Abbildungen in der Kunstwissenschaft
© gemeinfrei

Abbildungen in der Kunstwissenschaft

Eine kleine Rechtsfibel

Paul Klimpel

Uncertainties about image rights and licenses often impede or obstruct art historical publication projects. This primer on the use of illustrations in art history explains how most images can be reproduced in scholarly publications without costly licenses. Based on German copyright law and other relevant areas of law, the concise textbook explains exclusive rights and their limitations and exceptions, the public domain status of most classical works and their reproductions, as well as the right to quote, which is crucial in an academic context.

AP#4 | UNESCO Normative Documents
© Fernanda LeMarie – Cancillería del Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0

Access to Cultural Goods in UNESCO Normative Documents

Ruben Apressyan

For the first time, this study presents a comprehensive reconstruction of UNESCO’s normative documents in which the issue of access to cultural goods was developed. It traces the development within UNESCO’s documents of conceptions of the principle of access to cultural goods, of the notions of culture and cultural goods, of potential restrictions on access to cultural goods, and of the specific features of such access under the conditions of globalisation and the digitalisation of informational and cultural processes.

AP#8 | Nutzen und erfreuen
© KFG 33

Nutzen und erfreuen

Vereinfachte Gegenwartsliteratur im Spannungsfeld zwischen kultureller Teilhabe und Urheberschutz

Thomas Kater

Contemporary German literature often remains largely inaccessible to many people with reading difficulties. This accessibility gap is due to an unresolved tension between the human right to cultural participation, a fundamental right even of people with reading difficulties, and exclusive rights of authors and publishers. A solution would require authors and publishers to generously grant the licenses for simplified versions. This would not only allow people with reading difficulties a significant improvement of their chances to cultural participation, but could also benefit authors.

AP#10 | Verharren im Besitz
Berlin Museum of Ethnology, exhibition of the Africa (Cameroon) department before 1926
© Foto: gemeinfrei

Verharren im Besitz

Die Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und die Restitutionsfrage der 1970er Jahre

Jolanda Saal

Against the backdrop of current debates on the decolonisation of museums and their collections, this study examines the history of today’s restitution discourse in West German. Taking the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz—Germany’s largest federal cultural foundation—as a case study, it traces decisions, networks and developments in cultural policymaking that shaped the response to international restitution claims during the 1970s and early 1980s. The central question is whether the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz’s official rejections concealed a systematic policy of obstruction.