[pd-discuss] Adding items to PublicDomainWorks.net

Thu Jan 6 14:05:40 UTC 2011

What's the data behind this site?  I have to say that in its current form,
I'm not finding the site very useful.  This is partly because I'm not
in the assumed EU jurisdiction (something that's not nearly as clear
as it could be), and also because I don't see any reasons given for the
determination.

What I think would be more useful is to display an answer showing what
the public domain determination is based on.  If the underlying data is
already present for this, this should simply be a matter of some user interface
changes to make the reasoning more visible.  (And if the underlying data is
*not* present for this, the determinations should not be considered reliable.)

For example:

http://publicdomainworks.net/work/HEe5W4HxSImPqwGk_nvhow/History_Of_The_Psychoanalytic_Movement_%5Bn|Ge-%3F%5D_%28tr_A_A_BRILL%29--%5BProf%5DSigmund%28%3DSigismund_Schlomo%29_Freud

currently says

    Work: History Of The Psychoanalytic Movement [n|Ge-?] (tr A A BRILL)

     Work in the public domain?
      Yes.

I'd rather it say something like

    Work: History Of The Psychoanalytic Movement [n|Ge-?] (tr A A BRILL)

    Work in the public domain?

       Yes, in the European Union

   Reasons:

      All known creators died more than 70 years ago?   Yes (see list below)

      [followed by any other relevant checks.  If you're checking on whether
       the work was first published before the creator's death, for instance,
       you'd show the results of that check as well]

Now, as it turns out, this particular work is *not* in the public domain
in many European countries.  That's because the translator, A. A. Brill,
lived until 1948.  He doesn't show up in the list of creators, though, so
he's missed by the determination algorithm.  Ideally, there'd be good
enough data to avoid this error in the first place.  But at least if the
qualifications and reasoning chains are visible, a researcher
who's somewhat savvy about copyright can see when there might be missing
facts or inferences that might be important.  That's much better than
having an opaque oracle that one's never sure whether to trust.

John