The Guide considers these broader questions, but fairly parochially. Intellectual property issues have had the odd effect of uniting formerly unrelated business interests. Software and media companies now consistently lobby for broader definitions and longer copyright terms, better international enforcement, and ironclad laws against breaking copy protection systems. In contrast, the nonprofit, intellectual, and scholarly communities are increasingly divided on such issues as fair use and the public domain, unable to come up with common positions they all can support. Each individual and group within those communities is inclined to feel capitalist thugs are unfairly exploiting their intellectual property while they are simultaneously forced to pay outrageous use fees for things that should properly belong to everyone.
Museums increasingly find themselves at the center of such controversies.
Art historians are outraged that museums charge them fees for scholarly uses. Publishers clash with museums and artists' rights organizations about the scope of their control over rights. Museum directors struggle to stay in the black while being asked to give away the store as far as their intellectual property is concerned. It is hard to fault the AAM too much for sticking to their museum-oriented mission with this guide. Museum professionals are likely to hail its thorough treatment as a godsend, even if it usually does a better job of pointing out the complexity of the problems than presenting simple solutions.