We’re taking part inCopyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of the law, and addressing what’s at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation.
Every year webreathe a collective sigh of disappointmentfor millions of pieces of creative content that will not enter the public domain because of incredibly long copyright terms. We all know that creativity and knowledge owes something to what came before it—every creator builds on the ideas of their predecessors. Copyright terms that last decades past the death of the author will undermine the potential of the commons and needlessly limit the potential for new creativity.
And in the last few years, we’ve seenadditional threats to the commonsfrom prospective trade agreements such as the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership. If the TPP comes into effect, it would force member nations to set their term of copyright protection to life of the authors plus 70 years (if they do not already have that term), which increases the term an additional 20 years past the baseline required by existing international agreements. This means that works still under copyright in Brunei, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Vietnam will be automatically granted another 20 years of protection before they enter the public domain. We’re in agreement with leading economists that there is no logical reason to increase the term of copyright: an extension would create a tiny private benefit at a great cost to the public. It is estimated that the copyright term extension that would be required if the TPP is enacted would cost the public hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
At the same time, we celebrate the amazing works that arefinally a part of our shared public domain．除了那些因为版权过期而进入公共领域的作品，我们还看到去年发生了一些有趣的事情，这些事情正在帮助作者现在在公共领域分享他们的作品。This is because major online content creation and sharing platforms likeFlickrandMediumhave added options to share works in the public domain using theCC0 Public Domain Dedicationand thePublic Domain Mark．CC0是什么?它是一个允许任何人放弃他们的版权并在版权到期之前将作品直接放到全球公共领域的工具。什么是公共领域标志?它是一种数字印记，任何人都可以应用于已经在世界范围内公共领域的作品，比如版权显然已经过期的非常老的作品。
First stage of Falcon 9 rocketbySpaceX,CC0
What does the public get when authors share content in the public domain? We get to access and use an incredible body of content, including photos fromSpaceX,NASA, and millions of others creators.
In the2015 State of the Commons report，我们注意到使用CC0公共领域专用和标记有公共领域标记的版权过期作品的数量大幅增加。数据显示，2014年使用这些工具的公有领域作品总数约为1750万件。2015年，这一数字跃升至近3500万。这意味着，在过去的一年里，cc标记的公共领域的规模几乎翻了一番。这在一定程度上是因为这些工具被Europeana和Flickr等平台广泛采用。Of course, the public domain is not limited to content marked with CC’s public domain tools, but providing clear information about the public domain status of works alerts subsequent creators they can use those works without any restriction.
Even though copyright lasts far too long, the public domain is not lost. By fighting for more reasonable copyright policy, and continuing to develop and steward legal tools that empower sharing in the public domain, we can help regain the public domain for all of us.
