Traditionally, the public domain has been defined as the set of intellectual works that can be copied, used
and reused without restriction of any kind. For the purposes of this essay I wish to widen this a little and
make the public domain synonymous with ‘open’ knowledge, that is, all ideas and information that can be
freely used, redistributed and reused. The word ‘freely’ must be loosely interpreted – for example the
requirement of attribution or even that derivative works be re-shared, does not render a work unfree.
This public domain is very large. It includes the contents of the traditional public domain such as works
originally subject to monopoly protection but where the protection has expired, for example Shakespeare’s
plays, which were once subject to copyright, as well as items never subject to protection, for example the
theory of relativity. It also includes open source software and work released under (some) Creative
Commons licenses. As such, it consists of almost all of humanity’s intellectual output up until the very
recent present (for patented ideas it excludes approximately the last 20 years and for copyrighted works
approximately the last 100 years)....
Too often [the] value [of the public domain] has been unarticulated and thereby left vulnerable. While those who promote stronger
intellectual property rights point to the tangible benefits that these offer their businesses, the corresponding costs to the public domain and its users are invisible or ignored. This paper seeks to redress the imbalance
and, in doing so, to spur a re-orientation of innovation and information policy. Our current paradigm
represents a form of monomania in which monopoly rights, in the form of intellectual property, displace all
else from our thinking on this subject. It binds us to a narrow, and erroneous, viewpoint in which
innovation is central but access is peripheral. The system it has engendered is now so distorted that its
social and commercial costs in several key areas have become large. It is therefore high time to restore
balance, in particular by taking proper account of the public domain and open approaches to knowledge
production. It is only by doing so that we will be able to take full advantage of the possibilities offered by
this digital age.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/15/2006 10:16:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
