@article{48512,
      author = {Cuntz, Alexander. and Heald, Paul J., and Sahli,  Matthias,},
      url = {http://tind.wipo.int/record/48512},
      title = {Digitization and availability of artworks in online museum  collections : Economic Research Working Paper No. 75/2023.},
      abstract = {We provide quantitative evidence from museum collections  about how copyright status affects the availability of  digital images of artworks. The paper applies a regression  discontinuity and differences-in-differences design to  estimate online availability of artworks from U.S.  collections on digital platforms. We find a strong increase  in the availability of digital surrogates when copyright is  perceived to expire and original artworks are likely to  transition to the public domain. Moreover, artworks and  surrogates made available see a large number of downstream  reuses based on google image search data, which indicates  online availability is of commercial and public value  independent of right status. Notably, we show that upstream  surrogates of public domain artworks made available by  museums are positively correlated with higher image  resolution quality as compared to digitized artworks still  protected under copyright laws. At the same time, it seems  expressed industry norms can help encourage U.S. museums to  also make low-resolution surrogates of copyrighted artworks  available.},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.34667/tind.48512},
      recid = {48512},
      pages = {49 pages ;},
}