The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture - cover image

Book Series

Copyright

Melanie Dulong de Rosnay; Juan Carlos De Martin

Published On

2012-03-26

ISBN

Paperback978-1-906924-45-4
Hardback978-1-906924-46-1
PDF978-1-906924-47-8
HTML978-1-80064-446-5
EPUB978-1-906924-75-1
MOBI978-1-906924-76-8

Language

  • English

Print Length

249 pages (xxvii + 222)

Dimensions

Paperback156 x 13 x 234 mm(6.14" x 0.52" x 9.21")
Hardback156 x 16 x 234 mm(6.14" x 0.63" x 9.21")

Weight

Paperback781g (27.55oz)
Hardback1161g (40.95oz)

Media

Illustrations12
Tables2

Funding

OCLC Number

794060466

LCCN

2019452715

BIC

  • UBJ
  • LNRC

BISAC

  • LAW050010
  • COM087000
  • LAW104000

LCC

  • K1443.P83

Keywords

  • Copyright
  • creative commons
  • the commons
  • communia
  • cultural studies
  • open culture
  • Internet regulation
  • licensing
  • digital age
  • digitization
  • copyright law

The Digital Public Domain

Foundations for an Open Culture

Digital technology has made culture more accessible than ever before. Texts, audio, pictures and video can easily be produced, disseminated, used and remixed using devices that are increasingly user-friendly and affordable. However, along with this technological democratization comes a paradoxical flipside: the norms regulating culture's use —copyright and related rights —have become increasingly restrictive. This book brings together essays by academics, librarians, entrepreneurs, activists and policy makers, who were all part of the EU-funded Communia project. Together the authors argue that the Public Domain —that is, the informational works owned by all of us, be that literature, music, the output of scientific research, educational material or public sector information —is fundamental to a healthy society. The essays range from more theoretical papers on the history of copyright and the Public Domain, to practical examples and case studies of recent projects that have engaged with the principles of Open Access and Creative Commons licensing. The book is essential reading for anyone interested in the current debate about copyright and the Internet. It opens up discussion and offers practical solutions to the difficult question of the regulation of culture at the digital age. The free PDF edition of this title was made possible by generous funding received from the European Union (eContentplus framework project ECP-2006-PSI-610001).

Reviews

This new work [...] dives into the tension between digital culture—which enables easy sharing and remixing by content consumers—and the copyright-driven backlash to that potential openness.

Joshua Benton

"Free book: “The Digital Public Domain: Foundations for an Open Culture”". Nieman Lab, 2012.

Full Review

Contributors

Melanie Dulong de Rosnay

(editor)

Juan Carlos De Martin

(editor)
Faculty Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University

Charles R. Nesson

(foreword by)