Pedro Paranagua - The Public Domain Manifesto, which was produced within the context of COMMUNIA, the European Thematic Network on the digital public domain, has recently been launched. The Manifesto is a timely reminder that the public domain “is the wealth of information that is free from the barriers to access or reuse usually associated with copyright protection, either because it is free from any copyright protection or because the right holders have decided to remove these barriers.”

The Public Domain Manifesto puts forward five general principles:

1. The Public Domain is the rule, copyright protection is the exception;

2. Copyright protection should last only as long as necessary to achieve a reasonable compromise between protecting and rewarding the author for his intellectual labour and safeguarding the public interest in the dissemination of culture and knowledge;

3. What is in the Public Domain must remain in the Public Domain;

4. The lawful user of a digital copy of a Public Domain work should be free to (re-)use, copy and modify such work, and

5. Contracts or technical protection measures that restrict access to and re-use of Public Domain works must not be enforced.

If you would like to join Harvard’s Lawrence Lessig or Duke’s James Boyle, click here to sign the Public Domain Manifesto as an individual or as an organization - it is translated into several languages.