[BOAI] Europeana Public Domain Charter

[Peter Suber]

[Forwarding from SURF.  --Peter Suber.]



 *[image: Europeana - Think Culture]*

*Press Release*





The Hague – May 25th, 2010
       For immediate release

* *

* *

*Europeana Public Domain Charter: libraries, museums and archives support
Europe’s heritage *



   - The Public Domain must be preserved
   - A healthy Public Domain is essential to the social and economic
   wellbeing of society
   - Digitisation of Public Domain knowledge does not create new rights over
   it



Europeana.eu, Europe’s digital library, museum and archive, has published
the Public Domain Charter. The Charter has been drawn up by the Europeana
Foundation, Europeana’s governing body, which is supported by the European
Commission.

* *

Europeana is publishing the Charter because the Public Domain is under
threat. As Public Domain information is digitised, it is often becoming less
accessible to those who own it: the public. Policy-makers and funding bodies
need to consider the implications of removing information from the Public
Domain and the knock-on effect this has for creative enterprise, learning,
research and the knowledge economy.



When Public Domain material changes format from a book or a picture to a
digital file it must not leave the Public Domain. What has been held in
trust for the public for generations, often at taxpayers’ expense, should
not enter the private sector when it is digitised.



“A healthy and thriving Public Domain is vital for education, science,
cultural heritage and public sector information. No society can afford to
put up barriers to information access in today’s knowledge-based economies.”
- Elisabeth Niggemann, national librarian of Germany and Chair of the
Europeana Foundation

* *

*Notes:*



*What is the Public Domain?*

·         The out of copyright information that people can freely use
without restriction

·         Information that rights holders have decided to remove barriers to
access

·         Much of the world’s knowledge – the paintings of Leonardo,
Newton’s Laws of Motion, Diderot’s *Encyclopédie* – is in the Public Domain.

* *

*Why is it important?*

·         Society constantly re-uses and reinterprets material in the Public
Domain and by doing so develops new ideas, inventions and cultural works.

·         The internet gives access to the heritage of previous ages on an
unparallelled scale. It has accelerated the rate of innovation and the
creativity of new ideas and applications.

·         Access to Public Domain information lies at the heart of Article
27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone has the right
freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the
arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits”.



*Why publish the Charter?*

The Charter is a policy statement, not a contract. It doesn’t bind any of
Europeana’s content providers. It recognises the dilemma in which heritage
collections find themselves. Their drive to digitise and make Public Domain
content accessible is tempered by a recognition of the costs involved, and
the need to arrive at the most appropriate agreements with those who are
willing and able to fund digitisation programmes - including the private
sector.



However, it is necessary to label the rights associated with a digitised
item very clearly so that they are understood by Europeana’s users, who will
be able to exclude content from their results that requires payment or
doesn't comply with the Public Domain Charter. Rights labelling will become
a requirement when submitting content to Europeana by the end of this year.



While Public-Private Partnerships are an important means of getting content
digitised, the Charter recommends that deals are non-exclusive, for very
limited time periods, and don’t take material out of the Public Domain.



The Public Domain Charter is published in support of the recent Public
Domain Manifesto <http://publicdomainmanifesto.org/>. The Manifesto is a
statement made from the content users' perspective.
Communia<http://communia-project.eu/members>,
who have published it, represent education and research, consumer agencies,
technology developers and think tanks.



Europeana, and its governing body, the Europeana Foundation, support the
principal aspirations of the Manifesto. The Charter represents the position
of the content holders – the organisations that are entrusted with the safe
keeping of Europe’s Public Domain content.



*Europeana.eu* is Europe’s digital library, museum and archive. It gives
people free access to books, paintings, films, museum objects and archival
records that have been digitised throughout Europe. At present it holds 7
million items from over 1,000 organisations, including major international
names like the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the British Library and the Louvre.



Funded by the European Commission, Europeana is currently in prototype. The
fully operational service launches in autumn 2010 and will give access to 10
million items from Europe’s cultural and scientific heritage.



*The Europeana Foundation* is made up of the international associations
representing Europe’s cultural heritage institutions:

·                     ACE                       Association Cinémathèques
Européennes

·                     CENL                      Conference of European
National Librarians

·                     CERL                      Consortium of European
Research Libraries

·                     EMF                       European Museum Forum

·                     EURBICA                European Regional Branch of
Intl. Council on Archives

·                     FIAT                       Intl. Federation of
Television Archives

·                     IASA                       International Association
of Sound and Audiovisual Archives

·                     ICOM Europe           International Council of Museums
Europe

·                     LIBER                     Ligue des Bibliothèques
Européennes de Recherche

·                     MICHAEL                Multilingual Inventory of
Cultural Heritage in Europe

* *

*For more information contact
*Jonathan Purday
www.europeana.eu

Office: +44 (0) 1937
546614

Mobile: +44 (0) 7885 516234
jonathan <jonathan.purday at bl.uk>.purday at bl.uk <jonathan.purday at bl.uk>
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