This policy document highlights the importance of the public domain by establishing Europeana’s views for a healthy public domain and recommendations for preserving its function.
It states that Europeana, Europe’s digital library, museum and archive, belongs to the public and must represent the public interest; that the Public Domain is the material from which society derives knowledge and fashions new cultural works; that having a healthy and thriving Public Domain is essential to the social and economic well-being of society; and that digitisation of Public Domain content does not create new rights over it: works that are in the Public Domain in analogue form continue to be in the Public Domain once they have been digitised. It offers principles for a healthy public domain, and guidelines for preserving the function of the Public Domain.
The principles include:
– Copyright protection is temporary.
– What is in the Public Domain needs to remain in the Public Domain.
– The lawful user of a digital copy of a Public Domain work should be free to (re-) use, copy and modify the work.
The guidelines include:
– Any change to the scope of copyright protection needs to take into account the effects on the Public Domain.
– No other intellectual property right must be used to reconstitute exclusivity over Public Domain material.
The Public Domain Charter has been translated into 18 languages.
