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Thompson, Bill --- "The Public Domain and the Creative Author" [2007] ELECD 157; in Waelde, Charlotte; MacQueen, Hector (eds), "Intellectual Property" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Intellectual Property

Editor(s): Waelde, Charlotte; MacQueen, Hector

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845428747

Section: Chapter 9

Section Title: The Public Domain and the Creative Author

Author(s): Thompson, Bill

Number of pages: 13

Extract:

9. The public domain and the creative
author
Bill Thompson

1 INTRODUCTION
The public domain is little understood, rarely defended in the public prints and
under constant attack from those who would have all works of the human im-
agination kept under lock and key through a combination of perpetual copyright
and technological protection measures.1 Even while it persists it is often hard
to determine whether a particular piece of work is in the public domain, and
since the rules differ in different jurisdictions the status of all but the most obvi-
ous ­ for which read `older' ­ works must often be considered questionable.
The idea of the public domain is not well defined in English and Scottish law
and serves only as a catch-all for the collection of works whose use is not con-
strained by law ­ the inverse of the set of `works in copyright'. It is not even
mentioned in the discussion of copyright in McNae's Essential Law for Journal-
ists,2 the standard text for UK journalism students.
Clarity over its applicability is even further diminished by its rather cavalier
use in the press, where it is often called on as a longhand version of `public',


1
One advocate of a much stronger approach to copyright is Bruce Lehman, Com-
missioner of Patents for President Bill Clinton. Speaking in 1995 he said: `Creators,
publishers and distributors of works will be wary of the electronic marketplace unless
the law provides them the tools to protect ...