[Fwd: [pdb-discuss] Re: Writing a grant proposal for the public domain works db v0.4]

Tue Jun 27 21:57:23 UTC 2006

Fine with me!

Cheers,

Tim

On 27 Jun 2006, at 21:51, Rufus Pollock wrote:

> I'd like to send off the proposal to Vera at OSI so just wanted to  
> check everyone was happy. If I don't hear any objections in next  
> 24hrs or so I'll take it that is ok for me to send if off as is.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rufus
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [pdb-discuss] Re: Writing a grant proposal for the public  
> domain	works db v0.4
> Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2006 18:23:03 +0100
> From: Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org>
> To: Tim Cowlishaw <timcowlishaw at gmail.com>
> CC: pdb-discuss at lists.okfn.org
> References: <448FCAB6.5060502 at okfn.org>	  
> <3c92682c0606140208w78a02fe7s674e8e78c99cffb8 at mail.gmail.com>	  
> <4491521B.6030708 at okfn.org>	 <5EF1DC40-0CF7-494B-9278- 
> A02B1C1E07AA at gmail.com>	 <4497FBD9.4000605 at okfn.org>  
> <3c92682c0606220901k44c70102ie893414d619ff9c2 at mail.gmail.com>
>
> To save Tim yet another another round of folding in suggested changes
> I've produced the a merged myself which you can see below. This should
> be pretty close to final. Main changes are:
>
> 1. After talking with Tom I've put this as a joint project of Free
> Culture UK and the Open Knowledge Foundation: "Free Culture UK in
> association with the Open Knowledge Foundation plan to build ...".
>
> 2. Removed mention of specific license (GNU GPL) as we may not use  
> that
> license (e.g. we might want to use BSD for code and CC by-sa for data)
>
> 3. refactored 2nd and 3rd section: Got rid of proposal section and
> created 'Public Domain or Not? A Complex Question'
>
> Hope these are all ok.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rufus
>
> = Public Domain Works Database =
>
> == 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.
>
> == Public Domain or Not? A Complex Question ==
>
> In order to determine whether a work is public domain several facts
> about it 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.
>
> As the reader can imagine, for recordings of songs with multiple
> composers, or recordings incorporating a number of musical works, this
> calculation is complicated even further.
>
> == 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 in
> association with the Open Knowledge Foundation plan to build a *Public
> Domain Registry* which will list cultural works that have entered the
> public domain or which are about to fall out of copyright.
>
> The project will initially focusing on sound recordings because of the
> current debate in the EU about the extension of the term of copyright
> for works. Such an extension, (particularly when applied  
> retroactively,
> as in this case) would significantly reduce the size of the public
> domain but 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.
>
> 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' so that other
> projects, for example those working on orphan works, could easily use
> and build upon our work.
>
>
> Tim Cowlishaw wrote:
>> Hi All,
>> Version 3 of the proposal, you all know the drill by now. Annotate  
>> away!
>> cheers,
>> Tim
> [snip]
>
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