Public Domain

On 15 January 2026, the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) in Brussels was buzzing with energy as we gathered for European Public Domain Day 2026. This year’s edition felt particularly special: not only did we celebrate the public domain and the works that entered it this year, but we also marked 25 years of Wikipedia—a powerful reminder of what shared knowledge can achieve when it is truly open.

From the moment the doors opened, it was clear that this was not your usual conference. It was a meeting of communities: librarians, archivists, researchers, policymakers, technologists, artists, and advocates, all united by a shared belief that the public domain is not a relic of the past but a living foundation for our future.

A Beautifully Orchestrated Day

A huge part of that atmosphere was thanks to the exceptional organisation and warm, thoughtful moderation by Camille Françoise, who guided us through a rich and ambitious programme with clarity and generosity. Together with Bart Magnus, Camille helped set the tone for a day that balanced depth with openness, and serious policy discussion with genuine enthusiasm Sebastiaan ter Burg’s technical expertise and attention to detail for both sound and vision kept the day running smoothly both on- and offline.

European Public Domain Day 2026 was made possible through the collaboration of many organisations, including COMMUNIA, Creative Commons, Wikimedia Europe, Wikimedia Belgium, Open Nederland, Europeana, meemoo, the Flemish Institute for Archives, CREATe, and Internet Archive Europe—and it truly showed what can happen when ecosystems work together.

Key Ideas That Resonated

Across plenaries, panels, presentations, and workshops, one message came through loud and clear: the public domain underpins far more than artistic reuse.

In her compelling contribution, Brigitte Vézina (Creative Commons) reminded us that protecting access to and reuse of the public domain is essential to living healthier, happier, and richer lives. As she put it, the public domain is a fundamental principle of copyright law—not just a technical category, but a condition for creativity, scientific research, education, digital equity, and cultural participation. She closed with her call to action for organisations to sign the Open Heritage Statement of which Internet Archive Europe is a proud signatory.

Other sessions explored the public domain from historical, legal, and practical perspectives: from academic reflections on its origins and boundaries, to hands-on examples of how public domain collections are reused in games, fashion, audiovisual archives, and collaborative research. The diversity of formats—from policy deep-dives to pattern-a-thons and workshops—made the day feel dynamic and inclusive.

Internet Archive Europe: Bringing Collections to Life

For us at Internet Archive Europe, it was a privilege to be part of this year’s programme and to help support the event. I was especially proud to formally present the renewed and revitalised work of Internet Archive Europe during the morning session.

Our mission—to bring collections to life—fits naturally within the spirit of Public Domain Day. Whether through preservation, text and data mining for research, controlled digital access, or collaboration between memory institutions, our focus is on ensuring that cultural heritage can be accessed, studied, and reused in meaningful ways, now and in the future.

Public Domain Day reminded us why this work matters: because access is not automatic, openness is not guaranteed, and the public domain needs active stewardship.

During my presentation, I highlighted Websites van Nederland, an innovative project developed with the National Library of the Netherlands that makes decades of Dutch web history tangible and explorable for the public. By transforming archived websites into an interactive, immersive experience, the project demonstrates how web archives can move beyond preservation alone and become powerful tools for public engagement. I was also able to share exciting news about the project’s next chapter: building on its success in the Netherlands, the model is now expanding to Canada, signaling its potential as a scalable approach to activating national web archives and connecting people with their digital past across borders.

I finally took the opportunity to issue a call to action around the Our Future Memory campaign. As memory institutions increasingly operate in digital environments, it is essential that they retain the same rights online that they have long held offline: to collect, preserve, provide access to, and share knowledge in the public interest.

In the afternoon, Bob Stein introduced Tapestries, a free and open-source tool designed to radically rethink how we explore and share digital collections. Tapestries enables anyone—truly anyone—to create non-linear, multimodal narratives that weave together web pages, PDFs, images, audio, video, and even executable code. By drawing directly on collections from Wikimedia Commons, the Internet Archive, and Europeana, Tapestries offers a powerful new way to surface and connect cultural heritage materials, turning vast digital repositories into accessible, explorable stories.

Another highlight of the afternoon was Björn Wijers’ engaging presentation on “Happy Accidents” with Public Domain films. Through playful and unexpected examples, Björn showed how working with public domain movies can lead to creative discoveries that are impossible to plan in advance—moments where reuse, remix, and curiosity collide. His talk was a joyful reminder that the public domain is not only a legal status, but a space for experimentation and surprise, echoing the spirit behind Internet Archive Europe’s Public Domain Movie Night, where shared viewing becomes a starting point for collective exploration and creativity.

Gratitude and Momentum

Most of all, European Public Domain Day 2026 was about people. The speakers who generously shared their expertise. The participants who asked sharp questions and stayed for conversations long after sessions ended. And the organisers and partners who made the day feel welcoming, thoughtful, and genuinely collaborative.

As we left KBR and continued discussions over drinks, it was hard not to feel optimistic. The challenges around copyright, digitisation, and access are real—but so is the collective intelligence and commitment in this community.

Here’s to keeping the public domain visible, protected, and alive—not just on one day in January, but every day of the year.

Check out the video recordings and the photos on Flickr

On January 1, 2026, a new wave of cultural treasures entered the public domain. To celebrate this moment, Internet Archive Europe is bringing the spirit of Public Domain Day to Amsterdam with a special Public Domain Movie Night, while spotlighting the creativity of filmmakers from around the world through the Public Domain Film Remix Contest.

Public Domain Movie Night in Amsterdam

To mark Public Domain Day 2026, Internet Archive Europe invites you to an in‑person evening of film, conversation, and community.

📅 Friday, January 23, 2026
🕡 6:30–9:00 PM CET
📍Internet Archive Europe, Oudeschans 16, Amsterdam
👉 Register here to attend

During the evening, we will screen a selection of winning and shortlisted films from the Internet Archive’s Public Domain Film Remix Contest, watch a full newly-minted public domain movie, enjoy popcorn, and celebrate what becomes possible when culture returns to the commons. The event is designed as a relaxed community gathering—open to anyone curious about film, archives, remix culture, or the public domain.

Whether you are a filmmaker, researcher, artist, librarian, student, or simply a lover of cinema, this evening is a chance to experience how historical works can be transformed into something entirely new.

Why the Public Domain Matters

Every year, Public Domain Day reminds us that copyright is not meant to last forever. When works enter the public domain, they become part of our shared cultural heritage—available for education, preservation, creativity, and innovation.

The Class of 2026 is particularly rich. Iconic films, music, literature, and characters from the early twentieth century are now free to circulate and inspire new generations. Detectives, jazz, early animation, and classic cinema all play a starring role this year, highlighting how the public domain fuels cultural continuity and creative experimentation.

The Public Domain Film Remix Contest: Turning History into New Cinema

At the heart of this celebration is the Public Domain Film Remix Contest of the Internet Archive, an annual invitation to creators of all skill levels to experiment with public domain film and audiovisual materials.

The contest is not about technical perfection—it is about curiosity, play, and discovery. By remixing archival materials, participants demonstrate how old works can gain new meaning in contemporary contexts.

From Online Contest to Local Celebration

While the Film Remix Contest is global, Public Domain Movie Night in Amsterdam brings the celebration closer to home. By screening the winning films in person, Internet Archive Europe creates a space where digital culture, archival heritage, and local communities intersect.

The evening reflects Internet Archive Europe’s broader mission: universal access to all knowledge. It shows how archives are not static repositories, but living resources that invite participation, reinterpretation, and joy.

Join Us

• 🎬 Come watch award‑winning public domain remixes on the big screen
• 🍿 Meet fellow culture lovers and creators
• 🌍 Celebrate the public domain as a living, shared resource

Registration is required, and places are limited. You can register for the event via the official Luma page: https://luma.com/bmdhs6n2.  We look forward to welcoming you to Amsterdam for an evening dedicated to film, creativity, and the enduring power of the public domain.

Because when culture enters the commons, everyone can create.

This autumn, the Internet Archive reached a milestone that belongs to all of us: 1 trillion web pages preserved through the Wayback Machine. That’s 1 trillion glimpses into our shared digital memory — from the early homepages of the 1990s to the voices of today’s communities across the world.

As the Internet Archive marks this extraordinary achievement on 22 October in San Francisco, we invite libraries, archives, and cultural institutions across Europe to celebrate their role in making the web’s history accessible to everyone.

A Global Mission Rooted in Local Efforts

When the Internet Archive launched in 1996 with the goal of “building a digital library for the future,” few could have imagined the scale of the mission ahead. Nearly three decades later, the Wayback Machine has become one of the most widely used digital preservation tools in the world, capturing billions of web pages every month.

Each of those pages tells a story — of innovation, creativity, culture, and community. And behind every snapshot lies the dedication of institutions committed to safeguarding knowledge.

Across Europe, libraries have been at the forefront of this work: archiving national domains, documenting local histories, and ensuring that the diverse voices of our continent are not lost to time.

Europe’s Role in Preserving the Web

European institutions have long been pioneers in digital preservation — from the UK Web Archive and Bibliothèque nationale de France to Netarkivet in Denmark and numerous national and university projects across the continent.

Their collaborative spirit mirrors the Internet Archive’s mission: universal access to knowledge. Together, they ensure that Europe’s web — multilingual, culturally rich, and constantly evolving — remains accessible to researchers, journalists, and citizens for generations to come.

Celebrating the Libraries That Keep Memory Alive

To help libraries and archives join in this once-in-a-generation milestone, the Internet Archive has released a Resource Guide filled with practical tools and ideas.

It includes ready-to-use materials such as:

• Social media templates and visuals
• Event ideas and workshop guides
• Impact stories from institutions worldwide

Ways Your Library Can Celebrate

Explore your community’s digital history. And help us write the next chapter of the web’s story — one page at a time.

• Share your favorite archived webpage using hashtag #Wayback1T.
• Create a “Then/Now” image for your library’s web site using our free Canva template.
• Record a short video answering the question: “Why is the Wayback Machine important to you?”

As we look ahead to the next trillion, Internet Archive Europe invites libraries, cultural heritage institutions, and communities to continue working together to preserve the web, celebrate digital memory, and keep knowledge alive.

On September 17th, we were proud to unveil a new way to interact with digital history at the KB, the National Library of the Netherlands. Our new interactive installation, “Websites van Nederland: explore the web of the past,” is now open to the public, offering a playful and profound journey into the Dutch internet archive.

The response has been fantastic, affirming our belief that this machine is more than just a tool. As we noted at the launch, it’s a tangible expression of our vision to place our collective memory directly at each individual’s fingertips, demonstrating how digital preservation is not about storing data in the abstract, but about making the richness of the past immediately usable, searchable, and alive.

A Universe of Dutch Culture

The installation immerses visitors in a visual galaxy of 85,000 Dutch websites, drawn from over 1.2 million archived snapshots captured between 1996 and 2025. Using a physical joystick and buttons, visitors can fly through this vast digital universe, discovering the incredible diversity of the nation’s web landscape. The gamified experience encourages curiosity, while powerful voice search allows users to pinpoint specific topics or domains.

A Time Machine at Your Fingertips

Beyond exploring the sheer vastness of the archive, the installation is a powerful time machine. Visitors can select any website and instantly replay its history, flipping through archived versions to watch it evolve over the years. This feature makes the concept of a web archive tangible, showing how websites lived, breathed, and changed. To make the experience personal, a QR code lets visitors send any discovered website directly to their mobile phone to explore further.

A Blueprint for Europe’s Digital Heritage

While this first installation celebrates the Dutch web, it serves as a powerful blueprint for all of Europe. The technology and concept behind “Websites van Nederland” are designed to be adaptable. Imagine a “Websites of France” in Paris, or a “Websites of Italy” engaging visitors in Rome.

This is central to Internet Archive Europe’s mission. We aim to create engaging ways for citizens across the continent to connect with their own unique digital histories. This project shows that it’s possible to transform national web archives from static repositories into dynamic, interactive public experiences.

This is what “bringing collections to life” truly means. By connecting people with the traces of their own digital past, we empower them to understand the present and imagine the future. We believe this is essential work to ensure Europe’s digital memory is not only safeguarded, but also activated, accessible, and meaningful to all.

We invite you to visit the KB and experience “Websites van Nederland” for yourself. The installation will be on display until 11 October, culminating in The Hague’s Museum Night. Come and play with the past!

Photo credits featured image: “Preserving Digital Sovereignty: Marleen Stikker & Brewster Kahle at the KB” by Sebastiaan ter Burg, CC BY 4.0