Open Access and Public Domain (December 2003)

Open Access and Public Domain (December 2003): "Though the term 'open access' has become ubiquitous, I find that it is occasionally confused with public domain, i.e., that material easily accessible on the net is also freely available for reuse of any kind. The fact that open access goes hand-in-hand with 'weightless' digital content, in which the direct incremental cost of 'one more copy' is essentially zero, makes the distinction somewhat slippery."