TRU to use content whose copyright has expired

The Digital Media Project
Source	Martin Springer
Title	TRU #07 to use content whose copyright has expired	No.	040123springer01r1

Name:	Martin Springer
Affiliation/additional information:	Active Contributor, Luebeck, Germany
Date submitted:	2004/01/23

#	Criteria	Description
1.	Name of TRU	TRU to use content whose copyright has expired
2.	Summary description of TRU	Under the Berne Convention [1], the minimum duration for copyright protection is the life of the author plus 50 years (Art. 7(1)). Signatory nations may provide longer durations if they so choose [2]. The copyright law causes all copyrighted works which have reached the end of their term of copyright protection to fall into the Public Domain. Public Domain means that the creator of the work has given up or lost all rights to the work. It means that users may do anything with the work - read it, copy it, publish it, change it.
3.	Use records of TRU	Electronic Books: Project Gutenberg [3] is the Internet's oldest producer of free electronic books. Music: Public domain songs may be used for profit-making without paying any royalties. [4] US Government Works: Works by the U. S. Government are not eligible for U. S. copyright protection. [5]
4.	Nature of TRU	Supported by copyright law.
5.	Benefits of TRU	The expiration of copyright was initially conceived as a way to balance the rights of the Creator to exclusive ownership with Society's need to have free use of ideas/works that become commonly used and a part of our intellectual and social vernacular. However, under existing copyright law, the likelihood of a new work entering the Public Domain during the lifetime of the average user is minimal. (see footnote in [6]).
6.	Possible digital support	Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication [7] Automatic determination of copyright expiration date in the user's country via a trusted online date/time clock, a nationally set term limit information and an author-set profile of the first publication details [8]
7.	Requirements	The expiration of copyright protection or the willingness of the creator to dedicate the entire copyright in the work to the Public Domain.
8.	References	[1] - Berne Convention [2] - Project Gutenberg Copyright HOWTO [3] - Project Gutenberg [4] - The Choral Public Domain Library [5] - U.S. Copyright Office [6] - The Beginning of the Gutenberg Philosophy [7] - Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication [8] - proposed by Philip Merrill