[Infowarrior] - Cornell says no to restrictions on public domain materials

[Richard Forno]

http://news.library.cornell.edu/com/news/PressReleases/Cornell-University-Library-Removes-All-Restrictions-on-Use-of-Public-Domain-Reproductions.cfm

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FOR RELEASE:
Contact: Peter Hirtle
Phone: (607) 255-4033
E-mail: pbh6 at cornell.edu

Cornell University Library Removes All Restrictions on Use of Public  
Domain Reproductions

ITHACA, N.Y. (May 11, 2009) – In a dramatic change of practice,  
Cornell University Library has announced it will no longer require its  
users to seek permission to publish public domain items duplicated  
from its collections. Instead, users may now use reproductions of  
public domain works made for them by the Library or available via Web  
sites, without seeking any further permission.

The Library, as the producer of digital reproductions made from its  
collections, has in the past licensed the use of those reproductions.  
Individuals and corporations that failed to secure permission to  
repurpose these reproductions violated their agreement with the  
Library. "The threat of legal action, however," noted Anne R. Kenney,  
Carl A. Kroch University Librarian, "does little to stop bad actors  
while at the same time limits the good uses that can be made of  
digital surrogates. We decided it was more important to encourage the  
use of the public domain materials in our holdings than to impose  
roadblocks."

The immediate impetus for the new policy is Cornell’s donation of more  
than 70,000 digitized public domain books to the Internet Archive  
(details at www.archive.org/details/cornell).

"Imposing legally binding restrictions on these digital files would  
have been very difficult and in a way contrary to our broad support of  
open access principles," said Oya Y. Rieger, Associate University  
Librarian for Information Technologies. "It seemed better just to  
acknowledge their public domain status and make them freely usable for  
any purpose. And since it doesn’t make sense to have different rules  
for material that is reproduced at the request of patrons, we have  
removed permission obligations from public domain works."

Institutional restrictions on the use of public domain work, sometimes  
labeled "copyfraud," have been the subject of much scholarly  
criticism. The Cornell initiative goes further than many other recent  
attempts to open access to public domain material by removing  
restrictions on both commercial and non-commercial use. Users of the  
public domain works are still expected to determine on their own that  
works are in the public domain where they live. They also must respect  
non-copyright rights, such as the rights of privacy, publicity, and  
trademark. The Library will continue to charge service fees associated  
with the reproduction of analog material or the provision of versions  
of files different than what is freely available on the Web. All  
library Web sites will be updated to reflect this new policy during  
2009.

The new Cornell policy can be found at cdl.library.cornell.edu/ 
guidelines.html.

About Cornell University Library One of the leading academic research  
libraries in the United States, Cornell University Library is a highly  
valued partner in teaching, research and learning at Cornell  
University. The Library offers cutting-edge programs and a full  
spectrum of services, rare books and manuscripts and a growing network  
of digital resources. The Library’s outstanding collections – from  
medieval manuscripts to hip hop and from ancient Chinese texts to  
comic books – preserve the past and pave the way for future  
scholarship. To learn more about Cornell University Library, visit  
library.cornell.edu.