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

Tue May 23 15:50:54 UTC 2006

I'm definately happy to help with this!

I'll try and write something up over the next couple of days... are we
applying for a grant to develop the software, or the database itself, or
both?

We should also explain the need for this data, IMO.. in the absence of a
national 'copyrighted works registry' (which i think, was originally the
function of the stationers office, back when the statute of anne was first
implemented) we have no way of telling which works are in the public domain
and which are not, so there is a clear need for a system to gather this
data. (Is this all correct, btw? I'll obviously fact check and research
everything I write, but it'd be good to know if i'm missing the point
completely.)

I'll get something written to you in the next couple of days!

cheers,

Tim

On 5/23/06, Rufus Pollock <rufus.pollock at okfn.org> wrote:
>
> Dear Tom and Tim,
>
> I'm writing to you guys particularly because you both posted on
> fc-uk-discuss recently about pdb and indicated a willingness to help out.
>
> Right now one of our priorities is to write a grant proposal for the pdw
> db (public domain works database). Just yesterday I spoke again with
> Vera Franz of OSI about the idea and she seemed very interested and
> specifically asked me to send her a basic 1-2 page proposal outlining
> the pdw. I have also talked quite a bit with a law professor at
> Cambridge who was very interested and suggested writing a proposal to
> got a public funding body such as the AHRB.
>
> Would one or both of you be willing to take on the task of producing a
> first draft of this?
>
> It would be pretty simple to do and would focus on the metadata database
> (the works db) itself rather than the whole of PDB. I think we would
> want to outline the idea and ask for funding to develop a software
> prototype. (I also note that providing a simple overview of pdw db is
> valuable in itself). We should also point out that the underlying
> software (and db) could easily be used for other purposes than simply
> identifying public domain work, for example identification of orphan
> works (in fact as we have already discussed one would always end up
> making a db of all works since that a prior condition for identifying pd
> works -- and it would then be a trivial matter to add an extra field
> such as is_orphan just as we will add is_public_domain). Finally I think
> it is important to emphasize that both the data and software that
> resulted from our work would be /open/.
>
> Regards,
>
> Rufus
>
>
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