Can public libraries sell or capture the rights of the public? – Communs / Commons
►http://paigrain.debatpublic.net/?p=3448&lang=en
The British Library has accepted to sell to Google something that it clearly does not own: the rights of today’s and tomorrow’s public to access and use our public domain digital heritage.
by the magic of words, the British Library acquires “all rights, title and interest in the Library Digital Copy”, immediately using this new property-like right to accept constraints defined by its contracting partner. This magic should not prevent the public and its representatives to make the British Library accountable for taking away the rights of all.
The public domain in the widest sense is not public property, it is no one’s property in which all have a stake.