Page:The digital public domain.pdf/116

Rh works by great composers from the past could be enjoyed as commons either “on paper” (by the few people who are capable of reading music sheets) or through the purchase of recordings marketed in a traditional way for merely commercial reasons. For sound recordings to enter the public domain under EU copyright law and become digital commons without the support of commons-based releases, the public should now wait 70 years from their date of lawful publication or communication to the public.


 * 3. Public policy suggestions for maximising the dissemination of creative works in the public domain

The examples given in Section 2 demonstrate that open access initiatives have been carried out with beneficial effects for society by private entities. A company establishing a virtual label and a non-profit association of musicians have both successfully opted for these licensing methods in order to pursue their own business model or their foundational mission. In my view, due to their peculiar characteristics, these licensing models for the dissemination and use of digital recordings should not be developed only by private parties. The most significant beneficial effects for society may come from the adoption of these models by impulse of public bodies that, among their policy objectives, may have that of institutionally pursuing the maximisation of creative works disseminated through the building and operation of freely accessible platforms and repositories of digital commons. Copyright legislators and administrative bodies such as national ministries of culture and the European Commission (EC) have recently endorsed and fostered initiatives which aimed at creating, by expenditure of public funds, digital spaces where right-holders wishing to waive their exclusive rights could make their creations available to the general public under open access conditions.

The objective of building virtual spaces hosting digital commons was expressly embodied into the Third Additional Provision of Spanish Act N. 23/2006 of 8 July 2006 which transposed the EU Copyright Directive of 2001 into the Spanish legal system. This provision, entitled “Promotion of digital works dissemination”, encouraged the government to invest in the development of spaces of public utility where freely accessible materials, including works which have entered the public domain and works released under open access licences, may be stored and accessed by everyone through