Page:The digital public domain.pdf/34

Rh In the last decade, we have witnessed the emergence of a new understanding of the public domain in terms of affirmative protection and the sustainable development of a common pool of resources, especially in the digitally networked environment. This enhanced understanding of the value of the public domain has been undergoing a multi-faceted evolution with academic, civic, institutional and more practical ramifications. Today, the Institute for Information Law at Amsterdam University, the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, the Cambridge Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law, the Nexa Center for Internet and Society at the Politecnico di Torino, the Haifa Center of Law and Technology, the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain, the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, and a variety of other academic centres devote a substantial amount of their time to investigate the proper balance between intellectual property and the public domain, as detailed by the Communia Survey of Existing Public Domain Competence Centers delivered to the European Commission on 30 September 2009. Several advocacy groups are committed to the preservation of the public domain and the promotion of a shared commons of knowledge including, among many others: the Open Knowledge Foundation, Open Rights Group, LaQuadratureduNet, Knowledge Ecology International, the Access to Knowledge (A2K) movement, Public Knowledge, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Civil advocacy of the public domain and access to knowledge has also been followed by several institutional variants, such as the “Development Agenda” at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), setting specific policy recommendations to protect and strengthen the public domain. The WIPO efforts for the promotion of the public domain were presented at the fifth and seventh Communia workshops. In addition,