Treachery in the Rodin Museum 3D scan verdict(cosmowenman.substack.com)
332 points by CosmoWenman 10 days ago | 202 comments
tl;dr: After an eight-year FOIA battle to obtain the Rodin Museum's 3D scans of public-domain sculptures, France's Conseil d'État ruled against activist Cosmo Wenman, declaring that 3D scans are legally equivalent to physical reproductions and part of the museum's inalienable collection—thus exempt from freedom of information law. The court invoked Magritte's "Treachery of Images" to argue "sometimes a document is not a document," overriding prior favorable rulings from CADA and a Paris tribunal. Wenman was ordered to pay €3,000 to the museum, which had repeatedly lied about the scans' existence and usability throughout litigation.
HN Discussion:
  • ↑Points out the ironic absurdity that the bronzes aren't even original Rodin works
  • ↑Suggests legal counter-strategies based on misuse of public funds
  • •Questions why the museum fought so hard, trying to understand their motivation
  • ~Sympathizes with museum's economic concerns about losing reproduction revenue
  • ↓Criticizes the article for not explaining why scans should qualify as administrative documents