[pd-discuss] Privatization of the public domain by the BnF

Fri Jan 18 15:42:48 UTC 2013

The COMMUNIA association <http://communia-association.org>, La Quadrature
du Net <http://www.laquadrature.net/>, Framasoft <http://www.framasoft.net>,
SavoirsCom1 <http://www.savoirscom1.info> and the Open Knowledge Foundation
France <http://fr.okfn.org> have published today a statement denouncing the
content of two agreements recently signed by the French National Library
(BnF) and the French Ministry of Culture which would restrict digital
access to an important part of our cultural heritage.

More info here (in French):
http://www.laquadrature.net/fr/non-a-la-privatisation-du-domaine-public-par-la-bibliotheque-nationale-de-france

On Wed, Jan 16, 2013 at 9:07 PM, Primavera De Filippi <
primavera.defilippi at okfn.org> wrote:

> The French Ministry of Culture announced yesterday the signing of two
> agreements between the Bibliothèque nationale de France (BnF) and private
> firms for the scanning of documents belonging  (either partially or as a
> whole) to the public domain, including old books and over 200,000 sound
> recordings.
>
> These partnerships include a 10-year exclusive agreement allowing for
> these private firms to commercialize the digitized documents into their
> database - before they will be made available online on the digital library
> of the BnF (Gallica).
>
> These agreement are a form of commodification of the public domain, which
> has been explicitly condemned by the Public Domain Manifesto<http://www.publicdomainmanifesto.org/>of the COMMUNIA
> European network <http://communia-project.eu> (now Communia association<http://communia-association.org>
> ):
>
> Recommendation 4.    Any false or misleading attempt to misappropriate
> Public Domain material must be legally punished. In order to preserve the
> integrity of the Public Domain and protect users of Public Domain material
> from inaccurate and deceitful representations, any false or misleading
> attempts to claim exclusivity over Public Domain material must be declared
> unlawful.
>
> Recommendation 5.    No other intellectual property right must be used to
> reconstitute exclusivity over Public Domain material. The Public Domain is
> integral to the internal balance of the copyright system. This internal
> balance must not be manipulated by attempts to reconstitute or obtain
> exclusive control via regulations that are external to copyright.
>
> In France, several organizations including la Quadradure du Net, Creative
> Commons France, Wikimedia France, OKFN France are drafting a document to
> protest against this. Anyone willing to join this effort is welcome.
>
>
>
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