Public Domain Calculators
Background
As part of the Public Domain Works project, we wanted to create an algorithm to determine whether or not a certain work was in the public domain, given certain details such as date of publication, date of death of author, and so on.
Public Domain Works later joined onto the Open Library project, and there were several discussions about creating a set of algorithms for determining public domain status in different jurisdictions.
At the first COMMUNIA workshop the Open Knowledge Foundation suggested members of the network collaborate to create a set of public domain calculators fof different jurisdictions in Europe. The project was also discussed at the first meeting of the EU funded COST A32 project.
At the third COMMUNIA workshop, the OKF presented on the calculators project and a Working Group was created, which will include work on public domain calculators across Europe.
Overview
The Public Domain Calculators will be developed in two stages.
The first stage will be to develop copyright flow charts such as this one from Creative Commons Canada, or this one for the US from Bromberg & Sunstein LLP. This work will be undertaken and reviewed by groups of legal experts.
The second stage will be to convert these charts into code. Examples of the algorithms in code form, can be found at Public Domain Works and at the Open Library. This work will be undertaken by the OKF and volunteers.
Calculators
Below are brief summaries of work on public domain calculators in different jurisdictions. If you would like to get involved, please join our pd-calculators list and introduce yourself!
Argentina
Work will be co-ordinated by Ariel Vercelli at Bienes Comunes
Belgium
- Work will be co-ordinated by Severine Dusollier, University of Namur
Canada
Work is being undertaken by Access Copyright (The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency), Creative Commons Canada, Creative Commons Corp. and the Wikimedia Foundation. See this announcement for more details. Also, this fits under the CC PDwiki project. UPDATE: Most recent version of the flowchart is v.6, current as of December 16, 2008.
Chile
Work will be undertaken by Derechos Digitales
Guatemala
Work undertaken by Creative Commons Guatemala and LvM Library for Guatemala and other Central American countries, co-ordinated by Renata Avila and Dr. Grete Pasch with the collaboration of Michelle Carrera
Italy
Thomas Margoni at the Università di Trento has expressed an interest in developing a calculator for Italy.
Norway
Work will be coordinated by Gisle Hannemyr at the University of Oslo and Creative Commons Norway.
Philippines
Work will be undertaken by Philippine Commons and the Arellano University School of Law. Law Professor Berne Guerrero and Law Professor Jimmy Soriano will lead the work.
Spain
Work will be undertaken by Ignasi Labastida i Juan, Oficina de Difusió del Coneixement de la Universitat de Barcelona
Sweden
Work is being led by Mathias Klang at the University of Lund.
Switzerland
- Work is being undertaken by Simon Schlauri of CC Switzerland.
United Kingdom
- The Open Knowledge Foundation is producing a calculator for the UK.
United States
Work is being undertaken by Creative Commons and the Open Library under the PDwiki project.
- Existing work:
Paper Copyright Slider from the American Library Association.
- Interested in contributing:
- Hung V. Tran, Department of Computer Science - The University of Iowa