Re: public domain question

On Fri, 24 Mar 2000, Robert A. Baron <rabaron[_at_]pipeline.com> wrote:
>
> I have a question about the public domain that I want to ask without
> supplying the context for asking it (to be explained later):
>
> When you think of the Public Domain, do you think of a body of works
> owned in common by everybody or do you think of a body of works owned
> by nobody?

Personally, I see the Public Domain as anything that is free of any ownership (do not confuse this with works that come with copyleft licenses - these copyleft works are not free, they are still owned by the authors and creators). I like the true meaning of communication. The root word of "communication" is "common" which means that anything that is communicated in any medium or any form becomes common to anyone who receives the communication. The root word "com" of "common" means "with", "together", and "in association with" and "mon" means serviceable and obliging. The "common" means that a thing that can be used by two or more people. This is what I would like the Public Domain to be.

But, in the legal literature, the Public Domain means that the public owns the works.

> Is there any body of law or any judicial decision that leads you to
> choose one of the above?

I did a light research several years ago on the definition of the Public Domain. Domain means land and public means all people in an area covered by a government at any level (such as city, town, county, state, federal). In the old days, when a land is a public domain, it means that whatever government that covers the land controls it. Because the government represents people in the area, the land belongs to all people, that is, public.

Copyright (as well as patent) is built on the concept of property, that is, land. Like land, copyright comes with a set of rights. When a copyright owner loses copyright in a work/property, the ownership of the work/property reverts back to the public.

Don't quote me -- this is not a scholarly research.

> If you choose one or the other, what do you think are the implications
> of your choice?

We talked about whether a public domain work that is currently in the possession of a private citizen on his private property (such as a house) should be available to the public at all the times. The Public Domain needs to be treated differently in respect to tangible and intangible things.

> If you choose neither, why?

Do you have any other concepts that you want to tell us?

Joseph Pietro Riolo
<riolo[_at_]voicenet.com>

Number of days left until 1-1-2019 when all knowledge of 1923 in the land of the U.S.A. will be freed from their copyright owners' prisons: 6,854 Received on Sun Mar 26 2000 - 21:03:07 GMT