Europeana Hackathon

This page showcases the Europeana Hackathon results developed by Victor de Boer (VU Amsterdam) and Maarten Zeinstra (Knowledgeland). With this tool we intend to illustrate how properly curated metadata together with legal research can provide tools that help data providers check the copyright status of the objects in their collection.

Data about the publication date of works, death dates of creators, and jurisdiction is gathered from multiple sources (e.g. Europeana API, DBPedia, etc.); algorithms are then applied to determine the copyright status of the works in a given jurisdictions. Only the Netherlands is available at this time.

On the left side of the table you see the title of a work and on the right side whether a work is out of copyright (green), in copyright (red), or indeterminable (yellow). You can hover over the title to see a reproduction of the work at Europeana. Click on the title to go the relative Europeana objects. Hover over the icons to see a description of the data that we have and the assumptions we have made.

The example below is the result of a series of searches through the Europeana dataset on a Dutch region (Friesland before 1950), a Dutch city (Haarlem, before 1950), and works by Jan Heester. The Data file is fixed and the calculation happens whenever the page is loaded.

Check here to access the software behind the calculator. We've also made available the metadata finder and the enrich script.

Results

Make sure that you arrive at this page using http://www.outofcopyright.eu/hack4europe/, ommitting the 'www' will break the hack.

Disclaimer

The Public Domain Calculator is not intended to replace the case-by-case assessment by a legal expert of the public domain status of a copyrighted work or other protected subject matter. For legal certainty as to whether the term of protection of copyright or related rights has expired please contact a legal professional.

The Public Domain Calculator is intended to provide the public domain status of examined material exclusively in the selected jurisdiction. Please note that the public domain status of subject matter may differ between jurisdictions.

In relation to neighbouring or related rights (i.e. rights over performances, phonograms, the first fixation of a film and broadcast), the Public Domain Calculator only applies when at least one of the right-holders is a national of an EEA state, with the exception of Switzerland, where the Public Domain Calculator only applies when at least one of the right-holders is a Swiss national.

The Public Domain Calculator does not cover questions of authors’ or performers’ moral rights.