Reuse Case: Restitution

A group of Western ethnographic museums prepare the restitution of all objects that had been stolen under colonial rule to their countries of origin. Before the objects return, the museums set out to digitize the objects, and to archive their metadata. The plan is that this data will be released in the Public Domain so that everyone, including afro-descent people in Europe who are distant to these objects, will have access to files. Some lawyers critique this plan because they do not think the colonizing countries should be the ones to release this data. It should be the decision of the rightful owners in the countries of origin who decide, including whether some data is not to be released at all.

Part of Prompt 07: CC4r case studies (C. Thi Nguyen)