I. Description & History
II. Major Business Objectives
Executive Summary
The Knowledge Conservancy is a non-profit organization which makes privately held intellectual property accessible online to the public for free and assures its long-term preservation. The Knowledge Conservancy accepts licenses to and donations of copyright properties in addition to other gifts to achieve its mission.The Knowledge Conservancy offers authors, publishers and other copyright owners a means to serve the public good while still exploiting the commercial value of their assets. Owners of intellectual property can select terms for their donations, specifying the timing of public release and degrees of functionality associated with online access, so as not to compete with their own product offerings. The restrictions may be negotiated on a case by case basis, but the guiding rule is that restrictions should not prevent full serial access once released. In the case of books, for example, the Knowledge Conservancy typically requires free reading access to every page.
The Knowledge Conservancy offers members of the public who believe in the value of free public access to intellectual property as a way of 'leveling the playing field' for rich and poor individuals and rich and poor countries. By contributing money to ensure greater accessibility, public supporters can also assure that future generations will have access to intellectual properties after the current owners of such properties are no longer interested in providing access.
The Knowledge Conservancy is directed by professionals who have been involved in developing libraries of freely accessible content on the Internet, crafting organizations that make radical new uses of intellectual property online, and developing and implementing models for long-term preservation of digital content. Its advisors include people who have played a major role in Internet commerce, re-engineering intellectual property law, and Digital Library development.
The Knowledge Conservancy concept has proven highly attractive to potential contributors, who indicate willingness to join the Conservancy Project as members at annual rates of $40-$100, and to major supporters who have expressed willingness to provide on-going and one time support in excess of $10,000. A schedule of membership and sponsorship contribution levels has been designed to meet operating expenses and build an endowment devoted to long-term preservation. The Knowledge Conservancy concept has also proven attractive to copyright owners who have indicated willingness to donate access rights, individually and corporately, both in order to help realize the broad social benefits of free public access to online content and its preservation over time, and to realize benefits to themselves through promotion of their intellectual property holdings and potential tax benefits for progressive levels of public access donations.
The Knowledge Conservancy is currently seeking both major contributors and content donors. The Knowledge Conservancy has been launched with seed funding. Its initial library of publicly accessible online content is the database developed by John Mark Ockerbloom at The Online Books Page.