"Introduction: The Many Faces of the Public Domain" [2007] ELECD 148; in Waelde, Charlotte; MacQueen, Hector (eds), "Intellectual Property" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Intellectual Property

Editor(s): Waelde, Charlotte; MacQueen, Hector

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845428747

Section Title: Introduction: The Many Faces of the Public Domain

Number of pages: 8

Extract:

Introduction: the many faces of the public
domain
Hector MacQueen and Charlotte Waelde

This volume is part of the output from the Arts and Humanities Research Coun-
cil (AHRC) Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology
Law at Edinburgh University Law School, under one of its three anchor research
themes: `Intellectual Property, Cultural Heritage and the Public Domain'.
Among the aims of the projects being carried out under this theme are the
examination of the history, role and function of the public domain in relation to
all areas of intellectual property, together with consideration of the extent to
which the public domain may be diminishing with the expansion of intellectual
property right claims, and the effect this may have on cultural and scientific
production. In particular, there is to be exploration of the implications of digi-
tisation of public domain material for use on the Internet, with particular
reference to issues about access, reproduction, commercial exploitation and
privacy.
From the beginning of the Centre in 2002 an inter-disciplinary approach to
this investigation was thought to be essential. A working group with partici-
pants drawn from many different backgrounds met in March 2003 to identify
areas crossing over between concepts of public domain and scientific and
cultural heritage. The choice of topics for discussion in this book owes much
to the deliberations of the working group, and indeed many of the contributors
were among the participants on that occasion. One other follow-up to the 2003
meeting was ...