>>Intellectual Property Subject Area: THE PUBLIC DOMAIN Robert Baron Mary Case Michael Jensen 1. INITIAL STATEMENT As Carnegie Mellon's "Knowledge Conservancy" and the "Creative Commons" projects move ahead (or not) to promote and enable the public domain, in spite of recent legislation, what more can be done to effectively make works in the public domain more accessible and to encourage donations of work to the public domain? Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2000 22:52:47 -0400 From: Eric Eldred <eldred@eldritchpress.org To: Multiple recipients of list <cni-copyright@cni.org Subject: Re: U.S. copyright registration process On Wed, Aug 30, 2000 at 10:10:08AM -0700, Cumbow, Robert wrote: >Just having a searchable database of active copyrights and their owners is reason > enough to preserve the registration system, in my view (though I wish the LoC's >copyright database were even half as user-friendly as the PTO's trademark database). > The trouble is, the database is only as good as its ability to approach completeness >and reliability. Since the US adopted Berne, I am sure that the vast majority of copyright > owners do not register ... and sections 411 and 412 simply don't offer enough incentive > to do so. When renewals were part of the law it was easier to track down copyright owners. The LoC copyright database is for only 1978+ works: telnet to locis.loc.gov. [[though now see more user-friendly http://www.loc.gov/copyright/search - DLG]] The public-domain list of renewals online (formerly at CMU, now at http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books/cce ) is of course not authoritative, and not a database, but the images and index have recently been improved. Also, exploring the role of tax incentives (that have worked wonders for museums in acquiring "physical property") 2. SECOND STATEMENT Background (White Paper?) Definition of the public domain, its importance and its shrinkage as a result of copyright term extension, database protection. See NINCH Town Meetings on this subject: The NINCH Copyright & Fair Use Town Meetings 2000 Report, p. 9 <http://www.ninch.org/copyright/2000/report.pdf> Reports on the January 2000 (Chicago) and April 2000 (San Francisco) meetings that focused on the Public Domain, and in particular, the papers of Diane Zorich, "Why the Public Domain Is Not Just a Mickey Mouse Issue," and Howard Besser, "The Disappearing Public Domain: What Is It, What's Happening to It, and Why Should We Care?" Efforts to encourage expansion of the public domain Recent court cases Knowledge Conservancy Public Library of Science Lessons from the Open Source software movement Implications of limited public domain – locking away of the 20th Century Scenarios of what it would be like with no PD; what is our preferred future of PD? Issues How to raise public awareness of this issue (stories—do we have any?) Can content that contributes to the good of society, the progress of science, be somehow distinguished from entertainment focused content? Would this be a useful distinction? Focus rhetoric on the "public good" value of intellectual property - "The rich get to quote and the poor have to paraphrase" – John Unsworth Need to create incentives for IP owners alternative economic/revenue models tax deductions other? Other forms of IP—art, film, video, music What are the issues here? Possible Agenda 1) An advocacy position. We lobby --for the preservation of the "public domain" in the expected arenas: reduction of the period of copyright or at least preservation of the concept of limited copyright. --for a statutory definition of the "public domain." At this point "public domain" only seems to refer to that state that exists when copyright no longer applies. More can be said on this. --for an extension of the concept of the "public domain" to include all those uses that fall to the public; this can include the concept of "fair use." --for the PD as a legal state of ownership held in trust by society for the benefit of the public. This might be used to split the public domain content out of unique works (i.e. art works), from ownership of the physical entity. 2) an exploratory and investigative agenda: discussion of the customary and historical concepts used to define the public domain. See Robert Baron's article on the metaphors used to define the public domain (Robert's web-site: http://www.pipeline.com/~rabaron/VRA-TM-SF-PublicDomain.htm) compare and contrast the meaning of the PD as defined by various stake-holders: including mass-media and individual content creators. legal strategies used to create end-runs around preserving the public domain and efforts to create public domain conservancies. Include here Howard Besser's (and others') analysis of the "public commons." Potential Actions Media campaign Legislative agenda Lawsuit Promote alternative economic models Possible Speakers (depends on format of conference) David Bearman – Knowledge Conservancy; incentives to build PD Michael Shamos– Knowledge Conservancy; Harold Varmus – Public Library of Science; public good of scientific information Randall Davis, MIT – Alternatives economic models to support IP Tim O'Reilly, O'Reilly Associates – Open Source software and implications for IP Tyler Ochoa (Whittier College of Law) - articulate, experience with Town Meetings; could present a discussion of the public domain as a public trust. He is quite versatile and always goes back to the law, itself. Siva Vaidhyanathan - to discuss the social, political and intellectual significance of maintaining a strong public domain Kathleen Butler (VRA Town Meeting, San Francisco) could bring up some of the legal issues that could be considered outside of those I already noted: i.e. the role that contracts have played to limit access to the Public Domain and opportunities to make PD trump contract law.