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The assumption of the Founders was that after “limited Times,” the protected “Writings and Discoveries” would enter what we refer to as the public domain and become available for general use, i.e., they would become the building blocks of future progress and culture. Generally speaking, this balance remains close to what the Founders envisioned for “Discoveries” which, under our patent system, enter the public domain after 20 years.
“Writings” information and creative works are a different matter. Currently copyright protects information and creative works for the life of the author plus 70 years (about 130 years overall if the author creates something at age 20 and lives an average U.S. lifespan). Progress and culture therefore must wait more than a century before works created today are available to enrich the public domain.
When this extended length of copyright protection is coupled with the onset of technological controls available to restrict access to digitally encoded works, the balance between the traditional rights of creators and of the society of users of those creative works is thrown into a very different state.
How can a balance can be struck today that respects the “exclusive Rights” of creators and, at the same time, provides access to creative works and information in the spirit of the U.S. Constitution a societal bargain to reward creators in order to encourage them to create to enrich society and “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.”
There are three aspects of access to information including, but not limited to spatial information, that need further research. First, why might creators choose to make their works available under a set of less restrictive conditions than those of current copyright law? Second, what types of infrastructure(s) would be necessary to enable them to make their works available if they chose to do so? Third, how can users know that a creator’s work is available and under what conditions they may use it? These are al areas that I am interested in exploring in both a theoretical and applied way.
Professional Interests >> Information Policy
