The Knowledge Conservancy Mission
The Knowledge Conservancy acquires rights to provide perpetual public access to intellectual property and makes access, at a basic level, free to the people.
The Knowledge Conservancy is built on a foundation of respect for the value of intellectual property, whether privately owned or in the public domain.
Copyright owners who deed public access rights to The Knowledge Conservancy ensure that it will always be possible to view content they own on-line, yet maintain their exclusive right to realize the economic value of their intellectual property in value-added ways during the period of copyright protection and beyond. In addition, copyright owners may also obtain business write-offs and other tax benefits from their gift.
The Knowledge Conservancy creates a continuing social benefit by constructing and supporting the social and economic mechanisms to encourage 'free-to-read' information worldwide. When The Knowledge Conservancy obtains the right to provide access to privately owned intellectual property for the public, it supervises on-line availability. The Knowledge Conservancy is not an archive of original works. It works with online archives to ensure access in perpetuity.
The framework which encourages copyright owners to make content freely available will be different in different times, countries, and technology environments, but The Knowledge Conservancy will seek to maximize the result though invention and deployment of appropriate methods.
Donations of money to The Knowledge Conservancy help ensure the future availability of recorded sources of human knowledge by paying the costs of maintaining electronic representations over time and managing the Conservancy and research essential to preservation of digital knowledge.