Public Domain

Public domain is often shown as a copyright symbol with a line struck through it.  In other instances, it is the letters "PD" with a circle around them.

For people who spend a lot of time trying to understand copyright, Public Domain is a legal context, generally of a work of art or construction method.

Yet for many people, Public Domain is simply "common knowledge".  In a way, Public Domain is a foreign concept, as far as once an idea or method or work is made available to the world, it seems obvious that one can simply use the idea, method, or work for their own purposes.

One of the most interesting things about public domain, can be derived from it's definition:  "the realm embracing property rights that belong to the community at large, are unprotected by copyright or patent, and are subject to appropriation by anyone".

Merriam-Webster suggests the first known use of the word dates back to only 1832.  But that might be disputed.  What does Public Domain really mean?

According to the authors of the Wikipedia article on public domain, "The term public domain did not come into use until the mid-17th century, although as a concept "it can be traced back to the ancient Roman Law, as a preset system included in the property right system."  By my best guess, Merriam-Webster is probably correct in the first use of the word, but as a concept, Wikipedia is probably right.

To get into the philosophy of it, before anyone even thought about an idea, work of art, method, or anything else that was thought of and constructed by a human, it is quite plausible that people did not consider these things our laws describe, as being personal property.

Certainly, if I made a tool, it was my tool.  The object was my property, while it was in my possession.  And if you wanted the same tool, you'd have to go out and make it yourself.  I certainly would not have told you that you could not make the same tool.  Nor would I have likely been able to prevent you from doing so.

It's also hard to imagine someone, working away in their garage by themselves, chiselling out the first stone wheel.  It's actually entertaining that modern mythology around the wheel is that of a cave man who invents the stone wheel.  Based on archaeology, the oldest known depiction or use of a wheel dates back to about 3000 - 3500 BCE.  From what we know, the wheel we know today was likely designed specifically for chariots.  Before chariots, we had sledges and moving heavy objects was the job of draft animals dragging the object, to the eventual, likely use of round objects such as logs being used to reduce friction.

The point about the wheel is, it was likely the combined work of a group of people, or at least one person's idea based on past history and knowledge, and once people created these tools and methods, others picked up the practice and shared the knowledge with others, or at least had no control over someone else discovering or using the technology.  There's nothing special about a circle, or circular objects, but once the wheel was invented, it's use was adapted to many other purposes, as well.  From grinding stones to water wheels to steering wheels.

So what's the point?  Well, the point remains, that people HAVE attempted to protect intellectual property for a long time.  If I had a tool that made my life easier, that gave me an advantage over others, that might be used for defence or attack of an enemy, that advantage may have meant my very survival.  Yet for the survival of the species, having that knowledge and sharing it meant the difference between one surviving, and a family or tribe surviving.

Public domain is a human construct which does not exist without the contrary use of copyright.  Common knowledge is understood to be public domain.  But common sense does not mean common knowledge in our current legal system.  It was our elders, our tribal leaders, our orators, and our philosophers who held and shared the knowledge of the public domain.  They were the first keepers of knowledge.  They were our librarians and it was by their will that others would know, or not.

These days, our keepers of knowledge are those who are in contract with our legal system.  It is by their will that knowledge is shared with others, or not.  That then leads the question, "by what right do they withhold knowledge?"  What is to be gained by the individual, or exclusive group, by keeping knowledge secret?  Was there ever a time when that truly was valuable, or was it simply an artefact of our own fear of scarcity?  Is this behaviour simply a tool of power?

What ever the case, public domain is a valuable resource.  It may be argued that certain knowledge may hold lesser value than other knowledge.  Perhaps the knowledge of the world being round may hold little value to those who have no need of that knowledge.  Value is a very personal thing.  The very reality may be that information only holds value if it is shared, and only when the sharing of that information provides value to the recipient.  And that does not necessarily speak to a monetary value, especially if the recipient has no motivation to pay for that knowledge.  Knowledge has no real value, only perceived.  In the same way that gold has no real value, unless someone desires it.

It could certainly be said that this article has no real value, other than to perhaps stimulate the reader to spend some time to think about public domain.  To consider what a world without copyright might be, how it would work, and come to their own conclusions about whether copyright and IP law really serves a useful purpose.  To examine a very real time, before the advent of IP law, and whether or not innovation was truly held back without IP law.  Or whether innovation simply is a human drive, by which we help make our own lives, and the lives of those around us, better.