Access and the Public Domain

[T]his Article sketches out the emerging public domain. Part III considers three conceptual questions for structuring use of the public domain, focusing on the extent to which the public domain should be viral; on whether we should insist that the public domain be accessed only through the original artifacts embodying it; and on whether private appropriability incentives for distribution of public domain scans match overall social interests. Part IV turns to the tools for restricting use of the public domain, to copyright, contract, the DMCA, and the CFAA. Each of these matters for access to the public domain and for competition over it.

Part V considers one narrow question regarding the relationship between copyright’s deposit requirement and a truly public public domain, while the last Part briefly concludes the Article.