copyduty
n. A legal or voluntary obligation assumed by the owner of a work in exchange for having the work protected by copyright.
Etymology
Examples
2011
Hyde embraces the concept of "copyduty" along with copyright. A copyduty is an obligation voluntarily owed by an author or artist to the public or some segment thereof which may serve as an offset to that author or artist's copyright.
—Fred Brandfon, “Art and ownership: on Lewis Hyde's Common as Air; Book review,” The American Poetry Review, March 01, 2011
2006
Search opens up creations. It promotes the civic nature of publishing. Having searchable works is good for culture. It is so good, in fact, that we can now state a new covenant: Copyrights must be counterbalanced by copyduties. In exchange for public protection of a work's copies (what we call copyright), a creator has an obligation to allow that work to be searched.
—Kevin Kelly, “Scan This Book!,” The New York Times, May 14, 2006
1998 (earliest)
This all may suggest a very different future for the law of copyright. We may well see the day when our students are taught not of "copyright" but of "copyduty" — the legal duty of copyright holders to assure public access.
—Lawrence Lessig, “Life, Liberty, and…the Pursuit of Copyright?,” The Atlantic, September 10, 1998
Notes
The American Poetry Review citation is not available on the APR website, although a version of it exists here. The irony of this apparent copyright violation is duly noted.
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