The Europeana Public Domain Charter, published on the 14th April 2010, takes a strong position in support of the Public Domain, saying that:

• Europeana belongs to the public and must represent the public interest.
• The Public Domain is the material from which society creates cultural understanding and knowledge. Having a thriving Public Domain is essential to economic and social well-being.
• Digitisation of Public Domain content does not create new rights over it. Works that are in the Public Domain in analogue form continue to be in the Public Domain once they have been digitised.

For more information and copies of the charter please see http://version1.europeana.eu/web/europeana-project/publications.
The Charter is published in French, German, English, Polish, Spanish and Italian.