Is the Smithsonian Claiming False Copyrights?

Intellectual property junkies, and we know you're out there, have another case to salivate over. As the Examiner AP reports, the Smithsonian Institution, which houses over 6,000 images of its historical treasures in a publicly accessible online database, got the IP version of a shot across their bow from Public.Resource.Org, which recently downloaded every single photograph and made them available on its Flickr stream.

What's the problem? The Smithsonian claims it retains any "possible copyright" on these each of these photographs and states that people may not copy or redistribute them for any reason. Anyone trying to download an image must click through these disclaimer pages to get a low resolution, watermarked image, or pay $100-200 for a high resolution image via an FTP site. Public.Resource.Org, a recently created non-profit that vows to cut the red tape that curbs the flow of information between the U.S. Government and its citizens, is calling foul on the Smithsonian's claim of copyright. According to the organization's memo to "The Internet," the Institution, being funded through federal resources and chaired by the Supreme Court Chief Justice, falls under the law regarding copyrights as they apply to the Federal government. Which is to say, there isn't any -- according to the U.S. Code, "Copyright protection ... is not available for any work of the United States Government." (The memo is worth reading in full for its discussion of the Smithsonian as a federal institution versus a "trust.")

Public.Resource.Org argues that the page of legalese, in addition to the somewhat cumbersome process it takes to download each photo (pages of click-throughs), discourages the use of these images by citizens who should be free to use this public resource. And not only that it might scare off laymen, but that it is trying to create rights, if not by copyright, then through contract law -- that by clicking to download, you've implied your agreement to Smithsonian's terms.