“Like other museum institutions SMK is used to being seen as a gatekeeper of cultural heritage. But our collections do not belong to us. They belong to the public. Free access ensures that our collections continue to be relevant to users now and in the future. Our motivation for sharing digitized images freely is to allow users to contribute their knowledge and co-create culture. In this way, SMK wishes to be a catalyst for the users’ creativity.”

— Karsten Ohrt, Director of The Statens Museum for Kunst (“SMK”, The National Gallery of Denmark), From a Creative Commons Case Study about the SMK’s pilot project in which they put 159 works online, in high-resolution, under a Creative Commons “Attribution” license.