CONTEST DESCRIPTION

In this free contest, your task is to design a book cover. The author of the book teaches law at Duke. It will be published by Yale University Press. It will also be available under a Creative Commons license.

The title of the book is "The Public Domain” The subtitle is “Enclosing the Commons of the Mind." The book is about the fate of the public domain – the realm of material that is available for everyone to use without permission or fee. The book argues that we have been neglecting the vital role of the public domain in innovation, culture, science and politics and increasingly “enclosing it” by expanding the length, breadth and scope of intellectual property rights – copyright, patent and trademark – to cover material that used to be in the public domain. Some examples:

1. We have extended the length of the copyright term repeatedly and retrospectively, so that most of 20th century culture (books, movies, poems, photos) is still subject to copyright -- even if it is not commercially available and we cannot find a copyright holder. That means we cannot digitize that work and make it freely available online.
   


2. Copyright over music has become increasingly “granular,” covering even the tiniest 2 or 3 note sample. Would jazz or the blues have developed under the rules we have today?
   


3. Broad patents over foundational technologies hamper scientific research in genetics and synthetic biology. Vague business method patents and software patents pose barriers to entry into new markets and hurt free and open source software.
   


4. Digital fences and digital rights management are used to prevent “fair uses” of books, songs and movies.

The book ranges over all these subjects – discussing everything from Thomas Jefferson's view of intellectual property and the way that soul musicians borrowed from gospel standards (and were in turn sampled by hip hop artists and remixers) to the challenges posed to the emerging field of synthetic biology. The author argues that we need a movement – akin to the environmental movement – to preserve the balance between the realm of intellectual property and the “commons of the mind.”

PRIZES

• The top entry that the client chooses will receive $150*.
  


• The second entry that the client chooses will receive $100.
  


• The third entry that the client chooses will receive $50.
  


• The top voting winner will get 100 credits.

CLIENT RULES

• The client likes the idea of an image that suggests the enclosure an area that was formerly common – while making clear that the enclosure affects a zone of intellectual or cultural freedom. For example, a cutaway picture of a person's head, with one half of the inside posing a view of some gorgeous landscape, part of which is obscured because it is being boarded up, or a view of a public park full of living books, songs, computers etc, being enclosed by a brick dome. Other visual metaphors include locks, barbed wire, stop signs etc. Some examples can be found at the end of this comic. The client is also open to other ways of expressing the book's themes -- described above.
  


• Each example design should be presented both with and without text, so that the client can see the whole sketch/design as well as how it will look as a cover. Entries must contain the words "The Public Domain”, “Enclosing the Commons of the Mind" and "James Boyle." (The subtitle should be smaller than the title).
  


• Ideas can be photo-based or illustration-based. It should not look like a PowerPoint template, which all too many academic book covers do! The client is open to any and all ideas.
  


• The book dimensions will be 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, and hardcover. There will later be paperback editions. There will also be a Creative Commons-licensed PDF edition derived from the paper galleys.
  


• Any font may be used. Please upload your font to your corporate files area.
  


• Consistent with the book's theme, the author plans to make the cover available under a Creative Commons license.
  


• Before entering this contest you must read this thread.

GENERAL RULES

• Please upload your vector file (.ai or .eps) or high resolution photoshop files with all layers and elements intact (.psd), to the corporate files attachment area at the time you submit an entry (you will be prompted after uploading your image).
  


• Do not enter slight variations of your design as separate entries. Enter them as a single entry.
  


• Fancy background presentation is not allowed. Solid color backgrounds, that's it.
  


• Please leave some white space at the bottom of your entry so the worth1000 watermark doesn't overlap it.
  


• Any questions about what is desired by the client may be sent to corporate@worth1000.com.
  


• Because of the publisher's requirements, the client will be granted the full rights to all aspects of the submission of their choice as a work-for-hire in exchange for the prize mentioned above. However, the book and the jacket design will be made available under a Creative Commons license.