Minion

Description

Minion is intended for the collection and forwarding, by members of the public, of content that is viewable on the public internet so that anyone else can subsequently view/use the same content at a time, place, and manner of their own choosing. Minion is not intended for collection of private or confidential information that is not viewable already by the general public.

Minion is intended to make all user generated content that is currently viewable on the public internet equally accessible and available to all as part of "data commons." The data commons is part of the open web that belongs to the public at large and as such is a public good rather than a constellation of private data fiefdoms.

Public domain data may include facts as well as creative expression -- but as long as both are in the public domain, the assumption for any content that may have a copyright claim is that Minion's gathering function is consistent with i) fair use; ii) implied license for the context in which the content has been posted; and iii) the constitutional intent of the copyright clause in the U.S. constitution:

"To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"

Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution.

as well as the intent of the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act section of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) which creates a conditional safe harbor provision for "internet intermediaries."

Minion's sole objective is to allow persons and entities to crowd source for the public domain. Downstream users of Minion gathered factual details and creative expressions in the public domain are expected to comply with the above and all laws. But such subsequent use is acknowledged as not controlled or overseen by Minion or users of Minion. Minion and Minion's users are confined to the gathering rather than the subsequent reuse of such data as may exist in the public domain but not yet be organized into a data commons.