The public domain—those property rights that belong to society at large without the restrictions of copyright—has been diminished by copyright legislation and a recent Supreme Court decision. Copyright law is intended to protect the rights of creators for a period of time, after which works pass into the public domain where others can freely use them. However, recent extensions of the length of time a copyright is in effect and the fact that all works are now automatically awarded protection when created serve to curtail what actually moves into the public domain. The result is that the balance between protecting the rights of creators and publishers and the needs of society to insure progress in the sciences and arts has been lost. Believing that many individual creators would not elect to have all the copyright provisions the law automatically bestows, the Creative Commons was founded to provide a legal mechanism for individuals to select the rights they wish to maintain and those that they are willing to cede to others. The goal is to make more information available to the public within a "creative commons" in a way that complements copyright law.

Creative Commons --- copyright --- public domain --- fair use --- Internet --- World Wide Web

Ethical issues are central to any discussion or reflection on aging and health care. The authors of the OJIN topic, Health Care and the Aging Population: What Are Today's Challenges?, address a variety of topics including quality of life, long-term care planning, geriatric education, frail elder care, and successful aging behaviors. Imbedded in these topics are ethical issues that are relevant to nursing and/or health care. Thus, the focus of this column is to examine select ethical issues in these five articles on aging.

aged --- aging --- elderly --- ethics --- code of ethics

nursing shortage --- errors --- ethics