<font size="2"><font face="trebuchet ms,sans-serif">[Forwarding from SURF. --Peter Suber.]<br></font></font><br><div class="gmail_quote"><br><br>
<div lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="#606420">
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="5" color="purple" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:purple;font-weight:bold"><img width="170" height="91" src="cid:image001.jpg@01CAFC01.38BE8FA0" alt="Europeana - Think Culture" border="0"></span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right"><b><font size="5" color="purple" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:18.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:purple;font-weight:bold">Press Release</span></font></b><font size="5" color="purple" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:16.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:purple"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">The
Hague</span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> – May 25<sup>th</sup>,
2010
For immediate release</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold"> </span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold"> </span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="4" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold">Europeana Public
Domain Charter: libraries, museums and archives support Europe’s
heritage </span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0in" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:black"><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">The Public Domain must be preserved</span></font></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:black"><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">A healthy Public Domain is essential to the social and
economic wellbeing of society</span></font></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="color:black"><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:windowtext">Digitisation of Public Domain
knowledge does not create new rights over it</span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"></span></font></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">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.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold"> </span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">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.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">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.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">“<font color="black"><span style="color:black">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.” - </span></font>Elisabeth Niggemann, national librarian of Germany
and Chair of the Europeana Foundation</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-autospace:none"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold"> </span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-autospace:none"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold">Notes:</span></font></b></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold">What is the Public
Domain?</span></font></b></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font size="2" color="black" face="Symbol"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:black"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">The out
of copyright information that people can freely use without restriction</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font size="2" color="black" face="Symbol"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:black"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">Information
that rights holders have decided to remove barriers to access</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.25in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font size="2" color="black" face="Symbol"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:black"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">Much of the world’s knowledge
– the paintings of Leonardo, Newton’s
Laws of Motion, Diderot’s <i><span style="font-style:italic">Encyclopédie</span></i>
– is in the Public Domain.<font color="black"><span style="color:black"></span></font></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold"> </span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold">Why is it
important?</span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">Society constantly
re-uses and reinterprets material in the Public Domain and by doing so develops
new ideas, inventions and cultural works. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">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.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" color="black" face="Symbol"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Symbol;color:black"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" color="black" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black">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”.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold">Why publish the
Charter?</span></font></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">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. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">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.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">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.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">The Public Domain Charter is published in support of
the recent <a href="http://publicdomainmanifesto.org/" target="_blank">Public Domain Manifesto</a>.
The Manifesto is a statement made from the content users' perspective. <a href="http://communia-project.eu/members" target="_blank">Communia</a>, who have published it,
represent education and research, consumer agencies, technology developers and
think tanks.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">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.</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;text-autospace:none"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold">Europeana.eu</span></font></b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> 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.</span></font></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">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. </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold">The Europeana
Foundation</span></font></b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"> is made up of the international
associations representing Europe’s
cultural heritage institutions:</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">ACE
Association Cinémathèques Européennes</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">CENL
Conference of European
National Librarians</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">CERL
Consortium of European Research Libraries</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">EMF
European Museum Forum</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">EURBICA
European Regional Branch of Intl. Council on Archives</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">FIAT
Intl. Federation of Television Archives</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">IASA
International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">ICOM Europe
International Council of
Museums Europe</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">LIBER
Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><font size="2" face="Symbol"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Symbol"><span>·<font size="1" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"">
</span></font></span></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">MICHAEL
Multilingual Inventory of
Cultural Heritage in Europe</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0in"><b><i><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic"> </span></font></i></b></p>
<p style="margin-top:0in"><b><i><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold;font-style:italic">For
more information contact<br>
</span></font></i></b><font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">Jonathan Purday</span></font><br>
<font size="2" face="Arial"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"><a href="http://www.europeana.eu/" target="_blank">www.europeana.eu</a></span></font></p>
<p style="margin-top:0in"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">Office: +44 (0) 1937
546614
</span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial">Mobile: +44 (0) 7885 516234<br>
</span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"><a href="mailto:jonathan.purday@bl.uk" target="_blank"><span lang="FR">jonathan</span></a><a href="mailto:jonathan.purday@bl.uk" target="_blank"><span lang="FR">.purday@bl.uk</span></a></span></font><font size="2" face="Arial"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:Arial"></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="FR" style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:12.0pt"> </span></font></p>
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