[pd-discuss] Where do people interested in public domain works go?

Mon Feb 28 19:24:56 UTC 2011

"Public Domain Sherpa" is an interesting web site (at http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/) that is supposed to help people determine whether a book is public domain in the U.S.  It was pulled together by a web master, not a lawyer, but I haven't found anything that has given me pause. 

The Center for the Study of the Public Domain (http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/) is serious, but as far as I know, they are not running a discussion list or blog.  

Off the top of my head, I can't think of other US resources devoted solely to the public domain.  There are lots of blogs where public domain issues are discussed, but they are not the sole focus.

BTW, if you haven't seen it, you will want to read John Wilkin's new assessment of the size of the public domain in the US.  Here is the write-up of the report by Roy Tennant from the latest issue of Current Cites:

   Wilkin, John P. "Bibliographic Indeterminacy and the Scale of
   Problems and Opportunities of 'Rights' in Digital Collection Building"
   Ruminations  (February
   2011)(http://www.clir.org/pubs/ruminations/01wilkin/wilkin.html). -
   Wilkin, who needs no introduction to those reading this humble
   publication, writes of "bibliographic indeterminacy," which he
   describes as a "dearth of reliable bibliographic information" from
   which we can make informed decisions about our library collections.
   Having set that stage, he then reveals what he has discovered about the
   [30]Hathi Trust collective collection in terms of publication dates and
   potential copyright status. His preliminary conclusions include: "The
   percentage of public domain books in the collective collection...is
   unlikely to grow to more than 33% of the total number of books we will
   put online...The body of orphan works--works whose rights holders we
   cannot locate--is likely to be extremely large, and perhaps the largest
   body of materials. If the guesses made here are right, 50% of the
   volumes will be orphan works...The likely size of the corpus of
   in-copyright publications for which we are able to identify a known
   rights holder will be roughly the same size as, or slightly smaller
   than, the body of public domain materials." He ends with a call to
   develop a legal or policy framework to enable libraries to open up
   access to the essential "orphan works" corpus. - [31]RT

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
Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums:
http://hdl.handle.net/1813/14142

-----Original Message-----
From: pd-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org [mailto:pd-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Gray
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2011 1:38 PM
To: Public Domain discuss list
Subject: [pd-discuss] Where do people interested in public domain works go?

Hi all,

I wonder whether anyone has any suggestions for websites and portals for people interested in the public domain? E.g. are there any other active public domain discussion lists, blogs or other websites that people know about or would recommend?

We'd like to make sure we're working closely with as many other related initiatives as possible! ;-)

All the best,

Jonathan

--
Jonathan Gray

Community Coordinator
The Open Knowledge Foundation
http://blog.okfn.org

http://twitter.com/jwyg
http://identi.ca/jwyg

_______________________________________________
pd-discuss mailing list
pd-discuss at lists.okfn.org
http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/pd-discuss