[pd-discuss] Public Domain Day 2011 / Which works enter the PD in 2011?

Mon Oct 18 20:47:49 UTC 2010

John is right on target in his message.  It is not correct to talk about "works that will enter the public domain in 2011" without specifying a location.  A work that is public domain in a life+70 country could still be protected by copyright in the U.S. or in Mexico (with its life + 100 term).  Conversely, some countries are still life +50.  Am I correct in assuming that a Canadian work that enters the public domain because its author died in 1960 would also enter the public domain in a place that follows the rule of the shorter term?

In short, we can't just talk about works entering the public domain without also specifying a location.

Peter

Peter B. Hirtle    
CUL Intellectual Property Officer
Digital Scholarship Services
Cornell University Library                    
2B53 Kroch Library                              
Ithaca, NY  14853
peter.hirtle at cornell.edu
t.  607.255-4033 
f.  607/255-9524
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: pd-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:pd-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of John Mark Ockerbloom
Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2010 11:49 AM
To: Public Domain discuss list
Subject: Re: [pd-discuss] Public Domain Day 2011 / Which works enter the PD in 2011?

Some additional thoughts:

-- It'd be nice if whoever made the "life+70" version of the public domain chart could also code up a "life+50" version.  (Since it looks like the data was generated automatically, I'm hoping this could be done just be changing a parameter.)  While Europe and a growing number of other countries are on the life+70 term, there are still a number of other countries (like Canada) that are still life+50, but getting pressure for longer terms.  It'd be nice to show what people on those countries get to enjoy, and demonstrate the public benefits of the shorter term.

-- There are more names and works that could go on the chart.  I've just checked the data I've downloaded from Hathi Trust for death dates in 1940, and found names not on this list, as well as works by them not mentioned there.  (The Hathi data is not complete; I'm just downloading the records for books that have been determined to be in the public domain in the US; and there are often multiple records for different editions of the same work.  But this may be a useful supplement.)

-- If you'd like to include Hathi data in this or public domain or open-bibliographic projects, I've been told that they place no restrictions on the OAI-exported versions of their records.
The information for OAI downloads can be found on their site.

-- A project I'll be announcing sometime tomorrow (assuming no unforeseen glitches) will be making a lot of this data visible, searchable, and browsable in some interesting ways.  Please wait until the announcement on Everybody's Libraries, which will have more specifics, to spread this news,  but I think you'll find it an interesting and useful example of the sorts of useful new applications of open bibliographic data about public domain works.

John

Jonathan Gray wrote:
> I should also add that:
> 
> 1. We should think about what happened last year, and how we can build 
> on it. For anyone who didn't see this, there is a summary of various 
> initiatives here:
> 
> http://blog.okfn.org/2010/01/05/public-domain-day-2010-a-roundup/
> 
> Specific links:
> 
> http://www.publicdomainday.org/
> http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday
> http://everybodyslibraries.com/2010/01/01/public-domain-day-2010-drawi
> ng-up-the-lines/
> http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/20003
> 
> 2. Juan Carlos De Martin just pinged me about a list that he 
> circulated to the communia-members list in August (which I missed!), 
> which is reassuringly  similar to the one that we just generated from 
> Wikipedia + DBpedia + PublicDomainWorks.net:
> 
> Francis Scott Fitzgerald
> Nathanael West
> Isaac Babel
> Mikhail Bulgakov
> Leon Trotsky
> Walter Benjamin
> Paul Klee
> 
> The only differences are that he's included Isaac Babel and Trotsky, 
> and we've included John Buchan, author of the Thirty Nine steps! I 
> guess we could also include Emma Goldman...
> 
> 3. We should also obviously work to make sure we coordinate with as 
> many different initiatives as possible. If others have started 
> planning (and its not going to spoil any special surprises!) perhaps 
> they could pitch into this thread with an overview of what they're 
> doing?
> 
> Would it be useful to have, e.g., a planning call on this?
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> On Sat, Oct 16, 2010 at 11:25 PM, Jonathan Gray <jonathan.gray at okfn.org> wrote:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Just a quick note to get the ball rolling on preparations for Public 
>> Domain Day 2011!
>>
>> To start off with, it would be good to have a clear picture of which 
>> works are going to be entering the public domain (in different
>> jurisdictions) in the coming year.
>>
>> A rough guide is here:
>>
>> http://publicdomainworks.net/stats/year/2011
>>
>> I also cross referenced this with:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:1940_deaths
>> http://dbpedia.neofonie.de/browse/rdf-type:Person/deathDate-year~:194
>> 0~1940/
>>
>> As far as I can see, it looks like 'notable' creators whose work will 
>> be entering the public domain include:
>>
>>  * F. Scott Fitzgerald
>>  * Paul Klee
>>  * Mikhail Bulgakov
>>  * John Buchan
>>  * Walter Benjamin
>>  * Nathanael West
>>
>> To all of you copyright experts: does this seem accurate?
>>
>> Here are a few more which I know less about but whom might be worth 
>> investigating a bit more:
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89douard_Vuillard
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolae_Iorga
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Mac_Tu
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Mir%C3%B3
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Frederic_Benson
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Markham
>>
>> Any others to add?
>>
>> Also, FYI, I have started working on a new website which will be 
>> launched on Public Domain Day 2011. Some information is available at:
>>
>> http://jonathangray.org/2010/10/17/introducing-the-public-domain-revi
>> ew/
>> http://publicdomainreview.okfn.org
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> Jonathan
>>
>> --
>> Jonathan Gray
>>
>> Community Coordinator
>> The Open Knowledge Foundation
>> http://blog.okfn.org
>>
>> http://twitter.com/jwyg
>> http://identi.ca/jwyg
>>
> 
> 
> 

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