Smithsonian places 2.8 million works in the public domain
Smithsonian, in cooperation with Creative Commons, made almost 3 million of its works available under the CC0 “licence”. This means that rightholders waive their rights and that the content is available to copy, distribute and modify without restrictions, for any purpose (even commercial).
Smithsonian is an institution bringing together 19 museums, 9 research centres, libraries, archives and different affiliates and thus represents the biggest museum, educational and research complex in the world. Digitalisation within the Smithsonian Open Access project lasted for a decade and the result is a base with 2.8 million 2D and 3D works, from portraits of important American historical figures to dinosaur skeletons. Smithsonian joined many cultural institutions that acknowledge the importance of open access and the availability of artistic and cultural works for everyone. With a richer public domain education, research and dissemination of knowledge will be richer as well.
The Internet Archive is a non-profit organization that maintains the Open Library, a digital library index, and is dedicated to preserving knowledge. As many of the works in the Internet Archive are under copyright, the Archive uses a system of controlled digital lending based on digital rights management to prevent unauthorized downloading or copying of copyrighted books. In March 2020, due to the circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internet Archive established the National Emergency Library, eliminating the waiting lists used in the Open Library and expanding access to books for all readers. In June 2020, the Emergency National Library faced a lawsuit from four book publishers and was ultimately closed.
The 43rd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (hereinafter SCCR) made substantial progress on the issues advocated by the A2K Coalition (Access to Knowledge Coalition), which IPI is a member of. This year’s session was the most productive on the issues of exceptions and limitations. James Love (Knowledge Ecology International), a long-time observer at WIPO, described the outcome and the impact of the public interest community as the strongest since the conclusion of the Marrakech Treaty, which brought global copyright exceptions for the benefit of the blind and visually impaired.
Today, March 17, 2023, a symposium on law in the information society is taking place in the golden lecture hall of the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana. Dr. Maja Bogataj Jančič will present copyright aspects of artificial intelligence at the symposium.
The third day of the 43rd session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights is intended for discussion on the topic of exceptions and limitations to copyright, especially in connection with the right to research.