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Secret 3D scans in the French Supreme Court

(cosmowenman.substack.com)
771 points abetusk | 1 comments | 18 Oct 24 08:50 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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Symbiote ◴[18 Oct 24 12:06 UTC] No.41878622[source]▶
> The court ruled that the museum’s revenue, business model, and supposed threats from competition and counterfeiting are irrelevant to the public’s right to access its scans, a dramatic rejection of the museum’s position

It would have helped the museum and government ministry if this had been clear before the government-funded scanning program was started. (Maybe it was, I don't know.)

I was initially sympathetic to the museum, as it's common for public funding to be tight, and revenue from the gift shop or commercial licencing of their objects can fill the gap. I don't know about France, but I expect the ministry has been heavily pushing public museums to increase their income in this way.

However, that doesn't justify the deception described by the article.

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ACS_Solver ◴[18 Oct 24 12:36 UTC] No.41878841[source]▶
This same person fought for years to get the Berlin Egyptian museum to release 3D scans of the famous Nefertiti bust. The museum also claimed it would undermine its revenue streams through the gift shop, but as the case progressed, that turned out to be very misleading - the museum had made less than 5000 EUR over ten years from 3D scans.

https://reason.com/2019/11/13/a-german-museum-tried-to-hide-...

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whimsicalism ◴[18 Oct 24 15:20 UTC] No.41880239[source]▶
They’re afraid of losing out on the revenue from selling replicas, etc. which is probably a very reasonable fear given that the guy filing suit and writing this blog post runs a company that creates replica artwork?
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romwell ◴[19 Oct 24 00:40 UTC] No.41884711[source]▶
>They’re afraid of losing out on the revenue from selling replicas

You're aware that you don't need a 3D scanner (much less a 3D scan) to produce a replica of a sculpture (..or a replica of a replica), right?

There's this ancient technique, known as casting, still in use today - which was used to produce some of the very sculptures being scanned in the first place!

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1. williamdclt ◴[19 Oct 24 13:23 UTC] No.41887623{3}[source]▶
There’s no public access mold of these statues though? What would a manufacturer cast _from_?

A scan is effectively a digital mold, it’s the same conversation