How free is the public domain? What protocols govern its access and use? While debating the rights in traditional culture at the World Intellectual Property Organization in Geneva, delegates from developed countries have countered calls by Indigenous representatives for stronger access controls on Indigenous heritage, citing the importance of the public domain. In this article I critically assess this argument in light of how heritage institutions manage access to and reuse of public domain materials. In particular, looking at the recent digitization of heritage assets, heritage institutions often establish protocols for using the resources thus made available. With these protocols in place, it is difficult to maintain that the public domain preserved in Western heritage institutions is really a resource that is free for all.

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公共领域有多免费？哪些协议控制其访问和使用？在日内瓦世界知识产权组织辩论传统文化的权利时，发达国家的代表以公共领域的重要性为由，反对土著代表呼吁加强对土著遗产的获取控制的呼吁。在本文中，我将根据遗产机构如何管理对公共领域资料的访问和重复使用来严格地评估这一论点。尤其是，从近来的遗产资产数字化来看，遗产机构通常会制定协议来使用由此获得的资源。有了这些协议，很难保证西方遗产机构保留的公共领域确实是对所有人免费的资源。