Page:The digital public domain.pdf/69

42 fundamental values that shape our community. This approach would be a myopic understatement of the relevance of information in the “information society”. Therefore, “intellectual property must find a home in a broader-based information policy, and be a servant, not a master, of the information society”. In other words, the new policy for creativity envisioned by Communia shall revolve around the founding principle that the public domain is not “an unintended by product, or “graveyard” of copyrighted works but its very goal”. If Europe is eager to take up a leading role in the digital environment as stated in the i2010 strategy and the Digital Agenda, it is time to depart from the idea that the only paradigm available is a politics of intellectual property. Instead, it is pivotal to develop a global strategy and a new politics of the public domain. To quote again from The Public Domain Manifesto: private incentive to create shall naturally follow like exceptions from the rule.

The Communia proposal for a new politics for the public domain shall encompass the review of the following strategic subject matters:


 * Term of protection
 * Copyright harmonisation
 * Exceptions and limitations
 * Misappropriation of public domain material
 * Technological protection measures
 * Registry system
 * Orphan works
 * Memory institutions and digitization projects
 * Open access to research
 * Public sector information
 * Alternative remuneration systems and cultural flat rate

A politics for the public domain should (1) redress the many tensions with copyright protection by re-discussing the term of protection, re-empowering exceptions and limitations, harmonising relevant rules and adapting them to technological change; (2) positively protect the public domain against misappropriation and technological protection measures; (3) propel digitization projects and conservation of the European cultural heritage by solving the orphan works problem and implementing a registry system; (4)