An album leaf with notation for a waltz that is attributed to Chopin found in 2024 in the collection of The Morgan Library & Museum. Public Domain. View full attribution information.
It is the first day of a new year meaning it is also Public Domain Day – the day each year when copyright in material expires and it joins the Public Domain. Each year on the first day of January copyright protection over a diverse range of books, music, visual art, films and other content expires meaning anyone can share, use and adapt that content.
Of course, here in Australia, much copyright material is still protected because of the changes to the copyright term that commenced with the implementation of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA). A longer copyright duration delayed the passage of many works into the Public Domain. We still have a whole year to go until we will again see the majority of works enter the Public Domain on New Year’s Day.
Last year I wrote about the challenges the Public Domain faces from the increasing complexity of copyright law, lobbying by copyright maximalists to further extend the duration of copyright and the use of contract law and digital rights management (DRM). Beyond encroachment on the Public Domain, I also flagged obscurity as a concern; Public Domain material can be difficult to find and access.
Take for example the amazing discoveries during 2024 of new music by famous composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Frédéric Chopin. In September last year, Leipziger Städtische Bibliotheken (City of Leipzig municipal libraries) announced that an unknown set of serenades by Mozart were discovered in their collection of his works. Not long after, The New York Times reported the discovery of a lost waltz by Chopin found in The Morgan Library and Museum collection.
You can hear recordings of each on YouTube:
Undoubtedly this delighted classical music lovers, but it also speaks to why we need to properly resource libraries, archives and cultural heritage institutions. In these cases, it was libraries that ensured these culturally important works did not become the casualty of loss, destruction or neglect. Importantly, we often can’t know the significance of collections items when they join a collection. Their noteworthiness may not be fully realised until years later.
It took 200 years, but these hidden musical gems were rediscovered because someone was going through physical collections materials. It is not quite like being Indiana Jones or Lara Croft, but some of us are lucky enough to have experienced the thrill of donning white gloves and sifting through historic materials in a library or archive. Of course, most Australian’s will never get that chance.
To ensure the relevance, robustness and resilience of the Public Domain in a digital world, more needs to be done to allow all Australian’s access to the rich Public Domain. This means that we need to properly resource libraries, archives and cultural institutions, enabling them to digitise and make available online more of their collections in the pursuit of equitable access. The ability to view rare historical documents, newspapers, magazines, government documents, personal letters, diaries and journals, recipe books, forgotten photographs and so much more collections content shouldn’t be dependent on whether you can get to a specific building somewhere. Imagine how many more gems wait to be discovered and who else might find them if wider online access is available.