[pdb-discuss] Re: Writing a grant proposal for the public domain works db

[Tim Cowlishaw]

Hi All,

Version 3 of the proposal, you all know the drill by now. Annotate away!

cheers,

Tim

------------------------------------
Introduction
=========

The existence of an accessible public domain of cultural works is
essential to the business of educators, academics, artists and critics
alike. Originally, in order to benefit from copyright protection for a
work, authors were required to register the work and deposit a copy at
a central registry. This ensured that the identity of the work's
author could always be known, and that both copyright and public
domain works could be easily identified.

 Today it is no longer necessary to do this. 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. This is an unsatisfactory situation, as the
prohibitive cost and time commitment involved in ascertaining whether
a work is or is not in the public domain stifles creativity that
could otherwise profit from the existence of public domain works.

A Public Domain Registry for the EU
============================

In order to combat this problem and ease the difficulties involved in
ascertaining whether a work is in the public domain, Free Culture UK
is building a *Public Domain Registry* which will list cultural works
that have entered the public domain or which are about to fall out of
copyright, initially focusing on sound recordings. This is a
particularly pertinent field at present, due to the current debate in
the EU about the extension of the term of copyright for recordings.
Such an extension, (particularly when applied retroactively, as in
this case) would significantly reduce the size of the public domain in
this area. However, in the absence of a Registry of the type we are
proposing, this loss cannot be accurately quantified.'

This registry will take the form of a wiki-like database and
associated web application storing the above details for as many
cultural artefacts as possible. With this data stored, it would then
be possible to determine programmatically or by hand which works are
currently in the Public Domain. A major aim of the project is to
harness community and volunteer involvement in the process of finding
and entering information as well as in determination of the copyright
status of the work and so the system will be designed to allow
decentralized collaborative contributions in a wiki-like way.

In order to do this, several facts about each work need to be
ascertained – The date the work was first published, the name(s) of
any contributing authors, and the dates of the death of these authors,
if they are deceased. In addition, it is important, particularly in
the case of sound recordings, to ascertain the same information about
copyrights that the work in question may derive from. For example, in
order to determine the Copyright status of a sound recording we would
need to know:

* The year in which the recording was first made
* The name of the composer of the underlying musical work
* The date of death of the composer, if he or she is deceased.

For example, in the case of Elvis Presley's 'That's Alright', we
would ascertain that as the recording was made in 1955 and the term
of copyright on sound recordings currently stands at 50 years, that
the recording passed into the public domain in 2005. However, as the
song itself (the 'underlying musical work') was composed by Billy
Crudup (who died in 1974), and is covered by a standard term of life
plus 70 years, it will enter the public domain in 2044.

In the case of recordings of songs with multiple composers, or
recordings incorporating a number of musical works, this calculation
is complicated further, and the public domain burn database would
greatly assist in ascertaining the copyright status of these works. In
addition, the registry would be reusable in other contexts (the
identification of 'orphan works' being one example.)



Proposal
========

We are seeking funding in order to develop this Public Domain
Registry. The funding will be used to develop a software system and
associated database structure for the registry, and will also cover
the collection and entry of a limited amount of data for testing and
demonstration purposes. Once
there is a functioning web application the further acquisition and
entry of data will be performed by the community.

Both the software and data produced would be 'open' (Gnu GPL) so that
other projects, for example those working on orphan works, could
easily use and build upon our work.

------------------------------------

On 6/20/06, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
> Great work Tim, this is *really* good and  much tighter than the first
> version. A few comments/suggestions below. These are mostly pretty minor
> and with one more iteration I think we'll be ready to go (we should try
> to aim to do this by the weekend so it is ready for Tom's presentation
> at iCommons). Anyway great work and look forward to the next and, one
> hopes, final version.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rufus
>
> Timothy Cowlishaw wrote:
> > Hey Rufus,
> >
> > Sorry for the late reply, both deadlines at work and international
> > sports tournaments seem to have put  me behind schedule on this.
> > Revised version is below, all revisions and comments appreciated, as
> > always. I think it needs a better conclusion, (or any sort of
> > conclusion at all!) but am being careful not to repeat myself.
> > Cheers,
> >
> >
> > Tim
>
> Suggest we have section titles. Examples below
>
> > (text follows)
> > ------------------------------
> > Public Domain Burn – Application for funding
>
> In this case we are focusing on the Works Database so I'd use 'Public
> Domain Registry' or 'Public Domain Works Database' rather than Public
> Domain Burn (which describes the whole project including the
> digitization part).
>
> Introduction
> ============
>
> > The existence of an accessible public domain of cultural works is
> > essential to the business of educators, academics, artists and  critics
> > alike. The importance of prior art  to the future success of  creativity
> > (and the 'knowledge economy') both in the UK and Globally,  cannot be
> > underestimated.
>
> I'd cut (or improve) this second sentence as it still sounds a little
> weak ('cannot be underestimated') and is quite vague. The first sentence
> is good and simple and can stand on its own if we don't have a
> substitute/improvement.
>
> > Originally, in order to benefit from copyright protection for a work,
> > authors were required to register the work and deposit a copy at a
> > central registry. This ensured that the identity of the work's author
> > could always be known, and that both copyright and public domain  works
> > could be easily identified.
>
> perfect
>
> > Today it is no longer necessary to do this. 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. This is an unsatisfactory situation, as the  prohibitive
> > cost and time commitment involved in ascertaining whether  a work is or
> > is not in the public domain stifles creativity that  could otherwise
> > profit from the existence of public domain 'prior art'.
>
> really good again. one small suggestion
>
> -> from the use and resue of public domain works
> (prior art tends to be more used in the areas of patents rather than in
> the area of copyright)
>
> A Public Domain Registry for the EU
> ===================================
>
> > In order to combat this problem and ease the difficulties involved in
> > ascertaining whether a work is in the public domain, the Public  Domain
> > Burn project, instigated by Free Culture UK, is seeking  funding in
> > order to build a prototype database of artistic and  cultural works that
>
> I'd put the funding aspect at the end. Here I'd go for something like:
>
> In order to combat this problem and ease the difficulties involved in
> ascertaining whether a work is in the public domain, Free Culture UK, is
> building a <bold>*Public Domain Registry*</strong> which will list
> cultural works that have fallen into the public domain or which are
> about to fall out of copyright ....
>
>
> > have fallen into the public domain or which are  about to fall out of
> > copyright, initially focusing on sound  recordings. This is currently a
> > particularly pertinent field, as  various interested parties have
> > recently launched a campaign to  extent the term of copyright for sound
> > recordings from fifty years to  ninety-five; the confusion resulting
> > from this would make it even  more difficult to determine the copyright
> > status of a work.
>
> suggest: 'This is currently a particularly pertinent field ... -> [end
> of para]
>
> ->
>
> 'This is a particularly pertinent field because of the current debate in
> the EU about the extension of the term of copyright for recordings. Such
> an extension, which would be retroactive, would significantly reduce the
> size of the public domain in this area. However, in the absence of a
> Registry of the type we are propsing, this loss cannot be accurately
> quantified.'
>
> [this probably needs improving tightening ...]
>
>
> > This registry will take the form of a database and associated web
> > application storing the above details for as many cultural artefacts  as
> > possible. With this data stored, it would then be possible to  determine
> > programmatically or by hand which works are currently in  the Public
> > Domain.
>
> Would make some mention of the community aspect of this. e.g.
>
> This registry will take the form of a >wiki-like< database ...
>
> The add a sentence such as:
>
> A major aim of the project is to harness community and volunteer
> involvement in the process of finding and entering information as well
> as in determination of the copyright status of the work and so the
> system will be designed to allow decentralized collaborative
> contributions in a wiki-like way.
>
> > In order to do this, several facts about each work need to be
> > ascertained – The date the work was first published, the name(s) of  any
> > contributing authors, and the dates of the death of these  authors, if
> > they are deceased. In addition, it is important,  particularly in the
> > case of sound recordings, to ascertain the same  information about
> > copyrights that the work in question may derive  from. For example, in
> > order to determine the Copyright status of a  sound recording we would
> > need to know:
> >
> > The year in which the recording was first made
> > The name of the composer of the underlying musical work
> > The date of death of the composer, if he or she is deceased.
>
> can we bullet point these e.g.
>   *
>
> > For example, in the case of Elvis Presley's 'That's Alright', we  would
> > ascertain that as the recording was made in 1955 and the term  of
> > copyright on sound recordings currently stands at 50 years, that  the
> > recording passed into the public domain in 2005. However, as the  song
> > itself was composed by Billy Crudup (who died in 1974), and is  covered
> > by a standard term of life plus 70 years, it will enter the  public
> > domain in 2044.
>
> Good summary.
>
> > In the case of recordings of songs with multiple composers, or
> > recordings incorporating a number of musical works, this calculation  is
> > complicated further, and the public domain burn database would  greatly
> > assist in ascertaining the copyright status of these works.  In
> > addition, the prototype that we intend to build would be reusable  in
>
> the prototype ... to build would be ... -> the registry would be
>
> > other contexts (the identification of 'orphan works' being one  example.)
>
> Would now insert something like (please feel free to expand/improve):
>
> Proposal
> ========
>
> We are seeking funding in order to develop the Public Domain Registry.
> The funding will be used to develop the software system and the database
> struture for the registry and will also cover the collection and entry
> of a limited amount of data for testing and demonstration purposes. Once
> there is a functioning web application the further acquisition and entry
> of data will be performed by the community.
>
> Both the software and data produced would be 'open' so that other
> projects, for example those working on orphan works, could easily use
> and build upon our work.
>
> > ---------------------------
> > On 15 Jun 2006, at 13:27, Rufus Pollock wrote:
> >
> >> 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
> >
> >
>