Terms

These terms govern your use of open-museum.art and any print you order from us. By using the site you agree to them. Open Museum is an operating name based in Basel, Switzerland; the registered legal entity will be named here as the business is formalised.

Using the site

You are welcome to search the collection, read the rights records, and download a clearance manifest for any work. Please use the site lawfully and do not attempt to disrupt it, overload it, or work around the limits on the clearance interface (which is rate-limited so it stays available to everyone). Automated access should respect those limits and our robots directives.

The artworks, the brand, and the standard

The artworks. Open Museum connects works that source institutions have released under Creative Commons Zero or that are in the public domain, alongside works made available under licence. For a public-domain or CC0 work, we claim no new copyright; you can rely on the rights status recorded for that work. Where a work is offered under a specific licence, that licence governs its use.

Our brand. The Open Museum name, logo, and the look of the site are ours. Please do not use them in a way that suggests we endorse or are affiliated with you without our permission.

The openclearance standard. openclearance is an open standard. The specification is published openly and you are free to read and implement it. Our use of it on this site is described below.

What a clearance record means, and what it does not

A clearance record on this site reports a rights determination, identifies who made it, and records it so it can be checked. Today, those determinations are the open-access decisions of the source institutions (for example, a museum’s Creative Commons Zero or public-domain release of a work). openclearance composes existing licences and public-domain status; it grants no rights of its own.

A clearance record does not:

• replace your own judgement or independent legal advice about how you may use a work;
• assert that a reproduction is original, or make any claim about artistic merit;
• guarantee anything about a work’s rights status beyond the determination it cites and who made it.

Clearance records are currently provided with integrity verification only, which lets you confirm a record has not been altered. They are not yet cryptographically attested by a signing authority, and we do not describe them as attested. When that signing is in place, the records will say so, and the meaning of the higher assurance level will be stated alongside it.

Cultural-heritage standards

Open Museum is an independent platform, not a museum, and is not accredited by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Where we take on works beyond open-access public-domain collections, for example works contributed by artists, galleries, or source communities, we align our intake, provenance, and consent practices with the ICOM Standards on Accessioning (2020) and with the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Articles 11 and 12. In practice this means we seek good title and documented provenance, and we do not knowingly take on cultural material originating from Indigenous or local communities without their free, prior, and informed consent.

Ordering a print

These purchase terms apply once print ordering is enabled. Print ordering is being rolled out; these terms are current and we expect to refine them as our checkout and fulfilment mature.

How orders work. When you place an order, we show you the price and the delivery options before you pay. Payment is taken through Stripe. Once payment is confirmed, your print is produced to order and fulfilled by our print partner, Prodigi.

Pricing, taxes, and duties. Prices are shown at checkout in the currency displayed there and include any VAT we are required to charge. Where your order is delivered across a border, import duties or local taxes may apply; where these are not collected at checkout, they may be payable by you, as the recipient, on delivery.

Delivery. Delivery times depend on the print and your destination and are shown or estimated at checkout. We will share a tracking link where the carrier provides one.

Returns and damage. Each print is made to order. If your print arrives damaged or defective, tell us within 14 days of delivery and we will replace it or refund it. Because each print is produced individually for you, we cannot accept returns for a change of mind. If you are a consumer in the EU, the usual 14-day right to withdraw from a distance purchase does not apply to goods made to your specification, which these prints are; your rights where a print arrives damaged or defective are unaffected.

Liability

We provide the site and the clearance records with care, but as they are, without warranties beyond those the law requires and cannot be excluded. To the extent the law allows, Open Museum is not liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss arising from your reliance on a clearance record beyond what it states. Nothing in these terms limits liability that cannot be limited by law, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Changes and governing law

We may update these terms; the date at the top shows when. These terms, and any dispute arising from them or from your use of the site, are governed by the laws of Switzerland, and the courts of Basel have jurisdiction, except where mandatory consumer-protection law gives you other rights.

Contact: pramod@open-museum.art. Open Museum, Basel, Switzerland.