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Treachery in the Rodin Museum 3D scan verdict

325 points · 192 comments · CosmoWenman

  1. simonw · · focus · HN ↗
    I really want to understand the perspective of the other side of this case. Why did this museum care so much about this issue? They appear to have put an enormous legal effort into preventing the release of these point cloud scans. Why?
    1. geokon · · focus · HN ↗
      I often have the experience of going to a museum, seeing a painting I like, and then not being able to find any image of it online - let alone a highres scan. In my casual searches I've found museums generally don't share high resolution scans of their collections. Try to find high resolution images of famous, but not super famous paintings. It's often virtually impossible.

      I remember in college my art history professor had a personal digital collection of high quality scans that he'd procure somehow that were impossible to find online. The data seems to be highly guarded, I'm guessing b/c it can be used to make merchandise

      So my impression is that the Rodin Museum is not really the exception here

      1. IshKebab · · focus · HN ↗
        > I'm guessing b/c it can be used to make merchandise

        I doubt it. How much merchandise relies on high quality 3D scans?

        I think the real reason is that a lot of people are naturally paranoid control freaks. Their instinct is that these scans should be secret and they never really think beyond that.

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