The Public Domain Enhancement Act

We understand that a Bill may be presented to the House that would substantially enrich the public domain by imposing a minimal maintenance fee after fifty years of copyright, and releasing to the public domain those works for which the fee was not paid. The Bill would further require those who paid the maintenance fee to include a form with the name and address of the copyright claimant, to facilitate licensing and permissions.

We write with our strong endorsement of this effort. The Bill could give critical assistance to archivists, who struggle daily to preserve older books, artwork, music, and film in order to make knowledge and historical records available to present and future generations. From the National Archives to the town historian, archivists often deal with works near the end of their copyright terms, unavailable in the market but still valuable sources of knowledge. Society would benefit greatly if they could make these works more publicly available.

The Internet Archive, this letter's principal author, is a non-profit library that started by archiving the web in order to provide an historical record to future generations, including those that visit its interactive sculpture in the Library of Congress lobby. The Archive now provides free access to an enormous and wide-ranging collection of web pages, movies, books, sound recordings and software. Its Internet Bookmobile has traveled across the country printing public domain books for schoolchildren and communities.

The Archive can scan a book at a cost between $1 and $10; the Bookmobile can print paper copies for approximately a dollar apiece. The limiting factor in granting public access to much of our knowledge therefore is not production costs, but copyright's encumbrance. A huge amount of knowledge is locked up in out-of-print books with no commercial circulation. Only 400,000 different books sold even a single copy in the United States in the last year, while the Library of Congress contains 26 million different books. If even a tiny fraction of the remainder were to circulate more freely, the enhancement of knowledge would be substantial.

Many kinds of works have little commercial circulation but great personal or historical interest. These include genealogies and family and local histories; outdated scientific works valuable as history of science; and pamphlets and ephemera that collectively document an era. All of these are currently locked up by copyright for extended terms; many of their authors and copyright owners cannot even be traced. A maintenance fee and recordation at 50 years would help clear the muddle for archivists seeking to reproduce and circulate such works.

The proposed Bill would permit copyright owners with continuing interest in works to maintain copyrights, while providing for the easier accession to the public of the remaining works. In a time when digital technology enables us to make copies so readily available, this Bill would give archivists the raw materials of knowledge.

Thank you for your consideration. Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

Yours sincerely,