Google's quest to make art available to everyone was foiled by copyright concerns

When Google launched its “Art Project” in 2011, it touted it as a huge boon for freedom of information and cultural connectivity. But if you peek into any of the museums on Google Street View in 2015, you’ll notice lots of big, blurred rectangles where paintings should be -- the result of a copyright system that keeps even important artworks from being viewed publicly. When it comes to art, even Google can only show so much. It’s digitizing the world’s cultural artifacts -- but only those that copyright law blessedly forgot.