[pdb-discuss] Re: Writing a grant proposal for the public domain works db (example of complexities of copyright)

[Rufus Pollock]

Tim Cowlishaw wrote:
[snip]
>> > to register a work in order to gain the benefits of  copyright
>> > protection. Any work eligible for protection is covered  from the time
>> > of the making or publication of the work, without any  need to register
>> > that work as being protected, or to mark it as such.  As a result, the
>> > process of identifying protected or public domain  works is no longer
>> > trivial, as there is no central registry for  copyrighted works,
>> > determining whether or not a work is still covered  can rely on
>> > guesswork, or substantial (and costly) investigation.
>>
>> At this point I would introduce what we want funding for: public domain
>> registry, i.e. a database of works with information on whether they are
>> in the public domain.
>>
>> We can explain the complexities involved (as you do in next para) but we
>> should keep it to one simple, concrete example such as Elvis That's
>> Alright -- there was a long discussion of this on creative-friends but
>> the list archives seem to have disappeared so I will try to dig up the
>> email from my own archives and send it to the list.

Unfortunately I've just discovered that the creative-archive was deleted 
in March by the sysadmins at essential.org so all of this stuff is no 
longer online :( . However I have managed to repost on FC-UK site the 
most important bits:

   http://www.freeculture.org.uk/copyright/recordings -- full details
   http://www.freeculture.org.uk/term_extn -- intro

Regards,

Rufus