Back in June we solicited for assistance in a project to build a series of calculators to ‘map’ the public domain in different jurisdictions, by showing which works are out of copyright.
There are now individuals and groups keen to contribute to the calculators in at least 10 countries:
- Argentina: Bienes Comunes
- Canada: Access Copyright + Creative Commons Canada, Creative Commons + Wikimedia Foundation
- Chile: Derechos Digitales
- Italy: Universitàdi Trento
- Norway: University of Oslo + Creative Commons Norway
- Philippines: Philippine Commons + Arellano University School of Law
- Sweden: University of Lund
- Switzerland: Creative Commons Switzerland
- United Kingdom: Open Knowledge Foundation
- United States: Creative Commons + Open Library
For more information, see the PublicDomainCalculators wiki page!
Ultimately we’d like to see the formation of loose-knit groups to create, maintain and review charts representing relevant legislation in different countries. These charts would be converted into code, and combined with metadata about works to give a sense of what works are in the public domain in each jurisdiction.
We’ve set up a mailing list for interested parties to discuss developments and to share experience in creating flow charts to represent the law:
I’ll be talking about the Public Domain Calculators at the 3rd COMMUNIA Workshop in Amsterdam on Monday. As I suggested back in January it would be wonderful if we could build on the collective expertise and experience of the COMMUNIA network to trace the contours of the public domain in Europe!
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