In addition to these public domain works, there are works which are under copyright but which the copyright owners have given prior permission for use, usually under specific conditions, most often under the condition that the work is attributed to the creator and that the work is used for non-commercial purposes.
Finally, there are the provisions of “fair use” in copyright law which allow use of some materials under some circumstances without obtaining specific permission for use from the copyright holder. These materials are not themselves part of the intellctual commons but some use may be made of them which conforms to the commons spirit of use without prior consent of the copyright holder.
At a time when there is an increasing concentration of corporate ownership of copyrighted materials; when copyright protection is being extended to heretofore "un-copyrightable material" (for example, databases of facts in Europe and perhaps shortly in the U.S. if proposals now in Congress become law); when digital technology is enabling copyright holders to essentially preempt fair use and first sale provisions of U.S. copyright law; and when the term of copyright is now up to 130 years, given a normal lifespan for a young creator; the question emerges of how people who wish to expand rather than contract the public commons are reacting to these digital age developments. What efforts are emerging to protect and even expand the intellectual commons, and how well or poorly are they succeeding? Much of my current work is focused on exploring this question.
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