Preserving the Public Domain: Communia Policy Paper on Digitization Agreements

Note: Creative Commons, U.S. and Open Knowledge Foundation, U.K. are two members of Communia.

From the Opening of the Policy Paper:

The aim of this policy paper is to make policy recommendations for cultural institutions to preserve the Public Domain when using digitization services provided by private entities. This becomes particularly relevant in the context of the 2013 Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive which adds Museums, Libraries and Archives in the list of Public Sector Bodies (PSBs) that have to make their information reusable.

The Public Domain ensures the free dissemination of knowledge and provides everyone with the potential to access and create new works based on previous works. Thus, all Public Domain works should be free for everyone to use and reuse. Yet, as many cultural heritage institutions are entering into contractual agreements with third parties for the digitization of Public Domain works, there are serious concerns regarding the conditions of access, use and reuse of the resulting digitized copies.

Read the Complete Policy Paper
Direct Links to Other Communia Policy Papers
Learn More About Communia

Communia International Association on the Public Domain is a network of researchers and practitioners from universities, NGOs and SME established in 10 Member States. The mission of COMMUNIA is to foster, strengthen and enrich the Public Domain. To fulfill its mission, COMMUNIA and its members raise awareness in, educate about, advocate for, offer expertise on and research about the Public Domain in the digital age within society and with policy-makers, at the EU level and worldwide. COMMUNIA Association is a WIPO observer since October 2012.

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Digital Preservation, Journal Articles, Libraries, News