Public Domain Picture

The role of Public Domain in society

Public access to literature, art, music, and film is essential to preserving and building on our cultural heritage. Many of the most important works of American culture have drawn upon the creative potential of the public domain. Frank Capra's “It's a Wonderful Life” is a classic example of a film that did not enjoy popular success until it entered the public domain. Other icons such as Snow White, Pinocchio, Santa Claus and Uncle Sam grew out of public domain figures.

Intrinsic motivation

Many editors seem to have an intrinsic motivation to work with open content. Archives are usually inaccessible, so to make them accessible, what can be done? Usually it is very expensive to use film material, so to make it free, what can be done? Considering the idea of too many levels of mediation will not succeed. Now we have the technology to deliver information to people quickly and very inexpensively. So the motivation is to find a place of opening the system of access to historical information, so that it benefits everyone.

Altruism, even if the content is used commercially

In all of the projects, the editors have a certain feeling of altruism, working for the benefit of a community or society, the public good. For example, wants to open movie archives and make content available to the public:

There is a tremendous amount of very valuable historical and cultural material that is held in archival films.

Another example, one of the few catalogs on the Internet available for free. It is a strong motivation for the editors.

Despite the feeling of contributing to the public good, not all editors demand that content should remain completely non-commercial. It seems that it doesn’t matter if other actors financially benefit from open content. The only condition is that content is distributed as open content.

For example, Google reuses open content commercially. It might appear as a paradox that editors volunteer to help Google profit. For some, publicity is an overriding factor, rather than profitability.

Possibility for publicity

Since open content is spread among many actors in the value chain, there are abundant possibilities for publicity and promotion. In several of the projects examined in this study this seems to be an important driving force.

"When you deal with imagery, ubiquity is a good thing. The value is not diluted by being used, seen and showed. The more that our material is present in the culture, the more people will use it."

Publicity can be effective in several ways, such as the means to recruit new editors. It effectively ties publicity to use with a license that demands a hyperlink that states simply: "Become an editor. Help build the largest human-edited directory on the Web".

Is it useful if open content is used commercially? Responses in the interviews indicated that "the possibility for publicity" is a potential motivation.

Possibility for indirect revenue

Several of the projects have been used to explore new possibilities for indirect revenue. In some cases content has been "recycled" on other sites that use a variety of advertisements as sources of income. In some small part, some of this income eventually benefits a lot.

Business model has been more successful than models of many content-based Web sites. It gives away his movies for free but at the same time sells high-quality stock footage to large media companies.

Benefits for the end user

Benefits for end users seem to be one of the most important driving forces behind open content. It makes possible for average Internet users to get a basic understanding of a specific subject.

Most people look at movies for entertainment or education. It is believed that the content is important for both. Movies are also important to film projects on a low budget; indeed some movies would not have been produced if it wasn’t for his material.

Perhaps the best explanation is that the value chain contains mixed triggers, which are a mix of end users and producers/creators. The driving forces are not only a part of the value chain, but also parts of personal motivations and benefits to the society.

Could the term "value constellation" be useful for open content?

For some producers and creators, it is more important than for others in the value chain. A new study could verify this complex issue. Additional studies could also explore a variety of content developers and creators. In addition, the hierarchic structure of some content developers could also be explored