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Article: Importance of the Public Domain.
- Article from:
- Information Outlook
- Article date:
- July 1, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Special Libraries Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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What is the public domain and why is it important in copyright law? Nearly everyone has heard the term and has at least a vague notion of why it is important, but a deeper understanding of the value of the public domain is important for librarians, especially as copyright holders try to expand their rights.
A shorthand definition of a "public domain" work is that the work is the opposite of a copyrighted work. Works that are copyrighted have a bundle of rights associated with them. The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right to reproduce and distribute the work, adapt it, publicly perform and display it and, if the work is a sound recording, to publicly ...