[OpenGLAM] Swiss Public Domain FAQ

[Estermann Beat]

Dear all,

The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property has published a Public Domain FAQ.

The questions had been gathered by Daniel Boos from Digitale Allmend and myself, complemented by inputs from several members of the international GLAM-Wiki community, as some of you may remember. - Thanks a lot for your inputs!

The FAQ is an initiative to focus official communication by Swiss authorities about copyright law not only on its restrictive aspects, but also on the Public Domain and the rights it confers to everybody to re-use creative works.

The FAQ can be found here:
https://www.ige.ch/en/service/frequently-asked-questions/copyrights/public-domain.html

Of most interest from an OpenGLAM perspective are the following points:


-       Answer 2d: Metadata are not protected by copyright in Switzerland; as there is no sui-generis database protection in Switzerland, collections of metadata are not encumbered by any intellectual property rights.



-       Answer 4: "The individuality required for copyright protection is commonly lacking for reproductions which are as true as possible to the original. [...] Whether a work is two or three-dimensional is irrelevant."



-       Answer 11: "If a person or institution knows that a work is in the public domain and still claims copyright to it, this is so-called intentional deception. If, for example, a licence contract for a public domain work is subsequently signed, this contract would not be binding on the deceived person if he stated before a court that he is not in agreement with the contract.
If someone knowingly claims copyright remuneration for public domain works, this is usually viewed as unjust enrichment. In such cases, the remuneration received would have to be paid back."

I think it would be great if intellectual property offices in other countries followed suit and published their own FAQ!

Best regards,
Beat
_____________________________________________________
Beat Estermann
Research Associate
Berne University of Applied Sciences
E-Government Institute
Morgartenstrasse 2a
Postfach 305
CH-3000 Bern 22
beat.estermann at bfh.ch<mailto:beat.estermann at bfh.ch>
www.e-government.bfh.ch<http://www.e-government.bfh.ch>
Phone +41 31 848 34 30
Phone (direct number) +41 31 848 34 38
Fax +41 31 848 34 31

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