IP, Cultural Heritage and the Public Domain

 

The main aims of this project were to examine the history, role and function of the public domain in relation to all areas of intellectual property, and how it may be related to the idea of cultural heritage open to all participants in the culture.

The project also considered the extent to which the public domain may be diminishing with the expansion of intellectual property right claims and the consequent effect this may have on cultural and scientific production.

Recent Submissions

  • Public Domain, Public Interest, Public Funding: Focussing on the ‘Three P’s’ in Scientific Research 

    Waelde, Charlotte (AHRC Research Centre for Studies in Intellectual Property and Technology Law, 2005)
    The paper discusses the ‘three Ps’ of scientific research: Public Domain; Public Interest; Public Funding by examining difficulties faced by scientists engaged in scientific research. It discusses the problems faced when ...

  • The priorities, the values, the public 

    Waelde, Charlotte (Edward Elgar, 2007)
    The chapter brings together arguments about intellectual property rights, and the public domain. It examines where and how the values in intellectual property policy, and the intellectual property system, are sited with ...

  • Reform of archival legislation: a Scots perspective 2006 

    MacQueen, Hector L (Scottish Archives, 2005)
    A comparative approach of archival legislation between Scotland and Ireland.

  • From Entertainment to Education: The Scope of Copyright? 

    MacQueen, Hector L; Waelde, Charlotte (Sweet and Maxwell in association with the Intellectual Property Institute, 2004)
    The paper considers the scope of copyright in the light of the so-called “digital (or Internet) revolution” of the last twenty years, and raises some issues about the present and future shape of the law which seem to require ...

  • ‘My tongue is mine ain’: Copyright, the Spoken Word, and Privacy 

    MacQueen, Hector L (Blackwell Publishing, 2005)
    This article shows how under the present legislation in the United Kingdom copyright may exist in speech, in particular in interviews and conversations, provided that the words are recorded and constitute an original work.

  • Intellectual Property in a Peripheral Jurisdiction: A Matter of Policy? 

    MacQueen, Hector L (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
    A book chapter examining the impact of intellectual property law and intellectual property rights in Scotland as the "peripheral jurisdiction". The chapter is written from a socio-legal perspective.

  • Copyright Law Reform: Some Achievable Goals 

    MacQueen, Hector L (Edward Elgar pub, 2007)
    Copyright law reform in the European Union. The chapter discusses possible actions in light of new and amended EU Directives and whether these balances rights' holders and users' interests.