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What is it What’s in it How to Use It
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Public Domain - the realm embracing property rights that belong to the
community at large, are unprotected by copyright or patent, and are subject
to appropriation by anyone – Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
An intellectual or cultural commons – See, James Boyle
WHAT IS THE PUBLIC DOMAIN?
WHAT’S IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
Ideas and facts – e.g. Mt. Everest is 29,029 feet.
Works with expired copyrights - Remember 1923 and 1964
Works governed by early copyright statutes that failed to meet the requirements for copyright protection, i.e., notice, registration, and renewal requirements;
U.S. government works (Some Exceptions);
Scientific principles, theorems, mathematical formulae, laws of nature – e.g. the theory of evolution;
Scientific and other research methodologies, statistical techniques and educational processes;
Laws, regulations, judicial opinions, government documents and legislative reports;
Words, names, numbers, symbols, signs, rules of grammar and diction, and punctuation
Typefaces/fonts – e.g. Garamond, Times New Roman;
Instructions, Recipes, blank forms;
Architectural Plans/Buildings (After December 1, 1990);
Fashion Designs
WHAT’S IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
CONTINUED
G U G E N H E I M , B I L B A O , S P A I N B Y F R A N K G E H R Y ( 1 9 9 7 )
MAPPING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
S A M U E L S O N , P A M E L A , D I G I T A L I N F O R M A T I O N , D I G I T A L N E T W O R K S , A N D T H E P U B L I C D O M A I N ( 2 0 0 1 )
In addition to material accumulating or falling into the public domain one
can add or donate material through use of Creative Commons symbol:
http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Public_domain
There is no single source or registry of public domain works – one can
perform limited searches for materials at the U.S. Copyright Office or
limited online searching through the Stanford Copyright Renewal site:
http://collections.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/bin/page;jsessionid=0
ADFDC9CCA373259C1538B5A7E84CA05?forward=home
ADDING MATERIAL TO THE
PUBLIC DOMAIN
TIME LIMITS
How long do we have to wait?
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
Terms of copyright protection have been
extended by Congress:
Life of author plus 70 years (95 years for
corporate authors) - Copyright Term Extension Act
(CTEA) 1998 – upheld by Eldred v. Ashcroft, 123
S.Ct. 769 (2003)
Other countries – most common is life plus 50 or
70 years
W A I T I N G F O R T H E V E R D I C T B Y A B R A H A M S O L O M O N ( 1 8 5 7 )
REMIX CULTURE
Copyfraud – term first used by Jason Mazzone in 2006 to describe any
false claim of ownership over public domain materials.
17 United States Code 506 – up to $2,500 penalty.
Results in enormous costs to individuals and institutions.
COPYFRAUD
Celebrate new material coming into the
public domain – usually January 1st
Not a single published work entered the
public domain of the United States in
2013
Public Domain is shrinking – Golan v.
Holder, 132 S. Ct. 873 (2012).
PUBLIC DOMAIN DAY
Grant Wood (American). American Gothic, 1930. Oil on board. The Art Institute of
Chicago, Friends of American Art collection, (catalog number) 1930.934.
Public Domain Day: http://www.publicdomainday.org/2013
Public Domain Review: http://publicdomainreview.org/
Public Domain Works: http://www.publicdomainworks.net/
Center for the Study of the Public Domain: http://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/
Communia: http://www.communia-project.eu/
Public Domain Sherpa: http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/calculator.html
James Boyle Huffington Post Article (1/10/2013): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-boyle/public-
by-sufferance-alon_b_2443850.html
Stanford University:
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/Copyright_and_Fair_Use_Overview/chapter8/index.html
The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind Blog: http://www.thepublicdomain.org/
When Works pass into the Public Domain (UNC): http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
Cornell University Public Domain Timetable:
http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/docs/copyrightterm.pdf
SOURCES
U.S. Government Images/Pictures: http://www.usa.gov/Topics/Graphics.shtml
Golan v. Holder – Wikipedia Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_v._Holder
Samuelson, Pamela, Digital Information, Digital Networks, and the Public Domain – Conference Paper
November 9-10, 2001.
Mazzone, Jason, Copyfraud, New York University Law Review Vol. 81, p. 1026 (2006).
17 U.S.C. 506: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/506
New York Times article on Shepard Fairey: http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/07/shephard-
fairey-is-fined-and-sentenced-to-probation-in-hope-poster-case/
Shepard Fairey website: http://www.obeygiant.com/
TED Talk on Remix Culture: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/08/14/kirby-ferguson-ted/
Lessig, Lawrence, Remix: Making art and commerce thrive in the hybrid economy (2009):
http://www.amazon.com/Remix-Making-Commerce-Thrive-Economy/dp/0143116134
Copyright Research Guide: http://libguides.txstate.edu/aecontent.php?pid=169763&sid=1429664
SOURCES CONTINUED