TY  - GEN
AB  - When  nations  amend  their  copyright  laws  in  response  to  calls  for  international   harmonization,   they   usually   expand   authors’   rights   without  also  seeking  to  harmonize  national  public  domains.  Divergent  national copyright laws have resulted in an uncoordinated global public domain  that  renders  authors’  works  freely  available  for  use  in  some  countries while subjecting them to copyright or moral-rights protection in others. While the fragmented global commons thwarts many valuable uses  of  cultural  resources,  it  has  especially  deleterious  effects  on  the  ability  of  researchers  to  access,  copy,  and  disseminate  historical  and  literary materials, many of which remain unpublished. These effects are mirrored  and  exacerbated  by  the  inconsistent  policies  of  cultural  repositories  that  control  access  to  millions  of  documents  and  images.  The  uncoordinated  public  domain  shares  certain  features—notably, fragmented  ownership  and  resource  underuse—with  an  anticommons.  This  Article  offers  a  theoretical  framework  for  understanding  the  uncoordinated public domain, and illustrates the tragic inefficiencies of this  patchwork  commons  by  discussing  its  impact  on  a  number  of  research   and   publishing   projects   involving   modern   authors—in particular,  James  Joyce.  A  balanced  solution  to  the  checkerboard  effects  of  the  commons  would  be  to  employ  a  treaty-based  system  of  compulsory  licenses  to  harmonize  national  public  domains  and  to  coordinate the legal conditions whereby the world’s vast informational resources  could  be  globally  disseminated  by  researchers  and  other  users.
AU  - Spoo, Robert
ID  - 41931
KW  - Commons
KW  - Anticommons
KW  - Public domain
KW  - Copyrights
KW  - Moral rights
LA  - eng
LK  - http://www.cardozoaelj.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/35.1-Spoo.pdf
N2  - When  nations  amend  their  copyright  laws  in  response  to  calls  for  international   harmonization,   they   usually   expand   authors’   rights   without  also  seeking  to  harmonize  national  public  domains.  Divergent  national copyright laws have resulted in an uncoordinated global public domain  that  renders  authors’  works  freely  available  for  use  in  some  countries while subjecting them to copyright or moral-rights protection in others. While the fragmented global commons thwarts many valuable uses  of  cultural  resources,  it  has  especially  deleterious  effects  on  the  ability  of  researchers  to  access,  copy,  and  disseminate  historical  and  literary materials, many of which remain unpublished. These effects are mirrored  and  exacerbated  by  the  inconsistent  policies  of  cultural  repositories  that  control  access  to  millions  of  documents  and  images.  The  uncoordinated  public  domain  shares  certain  features—notably, fragmented  ownership  and  resource  underuse—with  an  anticommons.  This  Article  offers  a  theoretical  framework  for  understanding  the  uncoordinated public domain, and illustrates the tragic inefficiencies of this  patchwork  commons  by  discussing  its  impact  on  a  number  of  research   and   publishing   projects   involving   modern   authors—in particular,  James  Joyce.  A  balanced  solution  to  the  checkerboard  effects  of  the  commons  would  be  to  employ  a  treaty-based  system  of  compulsory  licenses  to  harmonize  national  public  domains  and  to  coordinate the legal conditions whereby the world’s vast informational resources  could  be  globally  disseminated  by  researchers  and  other  users.
SN  - 0736-7694
T1  - The Uncoordinated Public Domain
TI  - The Uncoordinated Public Domain
UR  - http://www.cardozoaelj.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/35.1-Spoo.pdf
ER  -