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The Europeana Public Domain Charter is a key policy document within the Europeana Initiative that highlights the importance of the public domain. 15 years after its adoption, it has been reviewed and updated to ensure that it continues to reflect the challenges that the public domain faces today. We tell you all about it in this post.
Each year, heritage works enter the public domain, opening up new possibilities for their creative reuse by educators, researchers and culture lovers. We are excited to mark Public Domain Day 2025 with an event at the Belgian National Library - find out how you can get involved!
The Nebra Sky Disk is a work in the public domain that represents the oldest representation of the night sky. Nevertheless, its image cannot be used freely because the state of Saxony-Anhalt holds the rights to the photograph of the sky disk. Is this justifiable? Dr Saskia Ostendorff considers the question.
This event, organised collaboratively between Europeana, Creative Commons, Communia, Meemoo, KBR, Wikimedia Belgium and Wikimedia Europe, celebrates Public Domain Day in 2025.
The out of commerce works ‘legal solution’ simplifies rights clearance, helping cultural heritage institutions to make materials from their collections that are not in commercial circulation available online. In some circumstances, it requires concluding a licence with a collective management organisation - Europeana Copyright looks into some of the conditions agreed so far.