public domain
Enable an AI agent to recognise a physical public domain, assess its public accessibility and condition, and determine which uses or interventions require further evidence or authorisation.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise a physical public domain, assess its public accessibility and condition, and determine which uses or interventions require further evidence or authorisation.
In land law, the public domain is the sovereign's ungranted territorial estate: in the United States, original federal lands acquired by cession, purchase or treaty that have never left United States ownership (and lands received in exchange for such lands), as distinct from later-acquired lands; in civil-law systems, domaine public / dominio público, being property of a public person affected to the public's direct use or to a public service and therefore inalienable and imprescriptible.
It can be Identify and map the place while flagging uncertain public-private edges.; Assess whether a specified person can enter and traverse it at a specified time.; Compare a proposed activity with evidenced use conditions and identify unresolved permission needs.; Detect when barriers, exclusive occupation or deterioration reduce practical public use.; Route maintenance reports or access enquiries to the evidenced responsible party.; Reassess public accessibility after a closure, management change or physical intervention..
Distinguishing features
A candidate has an identifiable physical extent; a collection of copyright-free works does not satisfy this interpretation.
Public ownership alone does not establish public accessibility: record whether ordinary members of the public can actually enter and use the place.
Observed access alone does not establish an enduring public entitlement: distinguish documented access arrangements from permission that may be withdrawn.
Public visibility does not establish public use: a visible but inaccessible courtyard or frontage needs separate boundary evidence.
A space serving a defined membership or customer group requires evidence before its access is treated as public.
Scope
+ The spatial extent and constituent spaces of a publicly accessible physical realm
+ The evidence supporting its public character, including distinctions between ownership and access
+ Public access conditions across entrances, user groups and times
+ Shared uses, competing activities and temporary occupation
+ Stewardship responsibilities and conditions affecting continued public use
- Copyright status and intellectual property reuse permissions
- Detailed cadastral records, title histories and land transactions
- Engineering specifications of individual roads, buildings, utilities or landscape assets
- Operation of individual events, businesses or transport services
- Municipal institutions and their internal administrative processes
Characteristics
- Public character basis
- Recorded designation, documented access arrangement, customary use, observed access only, contested, unknown; multiple values possible Separates the evidence for public character from assumptions based on appearance or ownership.
- Spatial extent
- Mapped boundary with coordinate reference system; area in square metres where meaningful; boundary uncertainty recorded Identifies where assessments and use conditions apply.
- Ownership and control relationship
- Place linked separately to evidenced owners, access controllers and stewards The party owning a place may differ from the party controlling entry or maintaining it.
- Access availability
- Open, conditionally open, partly closed, temporarily closed, inaccessible, disputed, unknown; time and affected area recorded Supports decisions about whether the place can currently be entered.
- Conditions of entry
- Recorded hours, charges, eligibility conditions, screening requirements and other restrictions; none evidenced or unknown Makes exclusions explicit instead of treating public access as universal.
- Accessible route continuity
- Continuous, interrupted, unavailable, unassessed; assessed separately for specified mobility and sensory needs An open entrance does not establish usable access through the place.
- Shared-use availability
- Available, constrained, exclusively occupied, unavailable, unknown; activity, location and time recorded Distinguishes nominal public access from practical opportunities to use the space.
- Restriction evidence
- Restriction linked to its source, issuing party, spatial extent, effective period and verification status Prevents an observed sign or barrier from being treated as sufficient proof of authority.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 28 questions.
Public character and extent Establishes which physical place is being modelled and why it is considered public.
A public domain cannot be recognised reliably from ownership, appearance or an unqualified label alone.
Meaning and public basis
Separates the intended physical meaning from other uses of public domain and records its evidential basis.
Basis for public character
Record the evidence supporting this place's inclusion and whether that evidence establishes designation, access or customary use.
- What does public domain mean for this registry entry, and does this place satisfy that meaning? definition
- Which records or observations support its public character, and what does each actually establish? provenance
Spatial inclusion and edges
Locates the public realm and distinguishes included spaces from adjoining or embedded exclusions.
Public domain boundary
Record the mapped extent, uncertain edges and internal areas with different access conditions.
- Where does the public domain begin and end at frontages, entrances, level changes and adjoining parcels? boundary
- Which internal areas are excluded or conditionally included, and what evidence supports those distinctions? provenance
Public access in practice Describes who can enter, when access is available and whether entry leads to usable routes.
Public character must be assessed against actual access conditions, including selective and practical exclusions.
Entry and availability
Records entrance conditions and temporal differences in public access.
Effective entry conditions
Record entry points, opening periods and conditions encountered by different users.
- Which entrances are usable at the assessment time, and what recurring or temporary closures affect them? measurement
- Which charges, eligibility conditions or screening practices limit who can enter? boundary
Inclusive route continuity
Assesses whether public access continues beyond the entrance for specified user needs.
Usable public routes
Record connected routes, barriers and usable alternatives between public entrances and destinations.
- Where do steps, gates, surface conditions, missing wayfinding or other barriers interrupt routes for the users being assessed? measurement
- Which alternative routes remain publicly usable, and do they introduce additional hours, charges or permission requirements? action
Shared use and occupation Captures how public activities coexist and how dedicated occupation changes the space available to others.
A place can remain open while passage, gathering or other public uses become substantially constrained.
Activities and use conditions
Distinguishes observed activities from activities supported by evidenced use conditions.
Activity-specific use assessment
Record how a proposed activity relates to the place's documented conditions and other public uses.
- What evidence addresses passage, resting, gathering, play, expression or commerce in the part of the place concerned? provenance
- For the proposed activity, which conditions are satisfied and which permissions or interpretations remain unresolved? action
Exclusive and competing occupation
Tracks installations or activities that reserve space or displace other users.
Public-use displacement
Record the spatial and temporal effects of terraces, queues, events, works or other occupation.
- How much space and route width remain available during the occupation, and for how long? measurement
- Which public activities or users are displaced, and where does that effect extend beyond the occupied footprint? boundary
Stewardship and use authority Connects access control, maintenance and intervention decisions to evidenced responsible parties.
An agent needs to distinguish who maintains a public place from who can authorise occupation or alter access.
Responsibility and control
Separates ownership, operational stewardship and control over public use.
Responsible parties
Record the parties responsible for the relevant space and decision, including gaps or overlapping responsibilities.
- Which evidence identifies the owner, maintenance steward and access controller for each relevant part? provenance
- Who should receive a maintenance report, access challenge or request to occupy space, and is that responsibility verified? action
Restrictions and interventions
Assesses the stated basis and reach of measures that change public use.
Restriction applicability
Record a restriction or proposed intervention without assuming that its presence proves its authority.
- What source supports the restriction or intervention, who issued it, and is its current applicability verified? provenance
- To which locations, activities, users and periods does it apply? boundary
Public-use condition and change Assesses conditions that sustain public use and records changes that require reassessment.
Public accessibility can deteriorate through physical failure or incremental enclosure even when the place retains its public label.
Conditions supporting public use
Focuses physical assessment on effects on passage, staying and shared activities.
Public-use impairment
Record observed defects and environmental conditions with their specific effects on public use.
- Which observed surface defects, lighting failures, drainage problems or obstructions impair public use, and where? measurement
- Which affected uses require rerouting, further inspection or a report to the responsible steward? action
Access change and restoration
Compares successive states and checks whether promised public access has returned.
Change in public availability
Record changes in accessible extent, opening conditions and shared-use availability against a dated baseline.
- Since the last verified assessment, what has changed in public entrances, accessible area, hours or exclusive occupation? measurement
- What evidence is needed to confirm restoration after a temporary closure or to reassess a lasting reduction in public access? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Original public-domain lands (never patented out of United States ownership)
- Lands restored to the public domain or obtained in exchange for public-domain land or timber
- Acquired federal lands administered as FLPMA "public lands" (often contrasted with original public domain)
- Withdrawn or reserved public-domain tracts (forests, parks, military, wilderness and similar reservations)
- Federal mineral estate remaining in the public domain under patented or private surface (split estate)
- Civil-law natural public domain (seashore, navigable rivers, ports and similar natural affectations)
- Civil-law artificial public domain (roads, and public-service buildings with indispensable fitting-out)
- Civil-law movable public domain (objects of public historic, artistic, archaeological, scientific or technical interest)
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of public domain this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus - 300055611 - AAT "Public domain": government-owned land, and also publications or processes unprotected by patent or copyright.
- Wikidata - Q19652 - Item labelled "public domain" is the copyright-status concept, not a cadastral parcel class; do not treat it as an identifier of a tract of land.
- United States Code - 43 U.S.C. §§ 1701-1787 (FLPMA); "public lands" at 43 U.S.C. § 1702(e) - Statutory name for BLM-administered federal land and interests, which include original public domain and acquired lands.
- Code of Federal Regulations (mineral leasing split) - 43 C.F.R. § 3100.3 (public-domain oil and gas versus acquired-lands oil and gas) - Operational identifier of whether a tract's minerals are leased under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 or the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands of 1947.
- French public-property code - CG3P arts. L. 2111-1 (immovable public domain) and L. 2112-1 (movable public domain) - Legal tests of belonging, not a parcel serial number.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of public domain this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (Pub. L. 94-579; 43 U.S.C. §§ 1701 et seq.) - United States Congress; BLM organic act, multiple use and sustained yield, inventory and planning, limited disposal
- 43 U.S.C. Title 43 (Public Lands) generally, including the historic general land laws - United States Congress
- Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 (30 U.S.C. § 181 et seq.) - United States Congress; oil and gas in public-domain lands
- Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands of 1947 (30 U.S.C. § 351 et seq.) - United States Congress; same minerals in acquired lands
- General Mining Law of 1872 - United States Congress; location of mining claims on public-domain minerals
- Wilderness Act of 1964 (16 U.S.C. §§ 1131 et seq.) - United States Congress; wilderness withdrawals from general land laws
- Code général de la propriété des personnes publiques (CG3P), especially arts. L. 2111-1 and L. 2112-1 - France (Parliament / official codification)
- French Civil Code art. 714 (res communis: things belonging to no one, use common to all) - France; neighbouring category, not domaine public
- Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works - WIPO / Berne Union (governs the homonymous copyright public domain, not land)
- U.S. Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. (including § 105 on U.S. government works) - United States Congress (copyright sense only)
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of public domain this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Cadastral and land-status records: a tract is classified as original public domain, acquired, withdrawn, or patented before grazing, mining, rights-of-way or sale can be authorised.
- BLM field offices manage remaining public-domain and other public lands for grazing, recreation, energy leasing, mining claims, rights-of-way and conservation under FLPMA land-use plans.
- Oil and gas lessees must know whether minerals are public-domain or acquired, because the 1920 and 1947 leasing acts and their acreage rules differ.
- Western states still contain large BLM blocks (Nevada and Alaska dominate remaining acreage); the original thirty public-land states are the historic theatre of the General Land Office.
- In France and other civil-law jurisdictions, roads, seashores, ports, court-houses and museum objects are used under public-domain rules: occupation needs a permission, and the property cannot be sold until declassified.
- Surveyors, title companies and GIS layers treat "public domain" as a tenure class on plats and master title plats, not as a vegetation or land-cover type.
- The same English words are used in libraries, museums and software to mark works free of copyright; that is a different legal object encountered in catalogues, not on the ground.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of public domain this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Original public domain acquired by the United States (1781-1867) - about 1.8 billion - acres
- Public-domain and other public lands transferred out of federal ownership - about 1.3 billion to date - acres
- BLM-administered surface (current public lands, including original public domain and acquired) - about 244 million (2023) - acres
- Federal subsurface mineral estate administered by BLM - about 713 million (2023) - acres
- All federal surface land in the United States - about 640 million; about 28% of U.S. land - acres (or percent of national land area)
- Statutory cap on federal oil and gas leasehold in one state (public-domain minerals) - 246,080 acres (of which no more than 200,000 under option; Alaska excepted) - acres per person or entity per state
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of public domain this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Applying the copyright sense of "public domain" to a parcel, or the land sense to a work, so the wrong statute is used.
- Trespass, illegal occupancy, unauthorised off-road use and theft of resources on unfenced public-domain land.
- Wildfire, fuels build-up, overgrazing and watershed damage on multiple-use public lands.
- Split-estate conflict: surface owner versus reserved public-domain minerals; access and damage disputes.
- Checkerboard and inholding patterns that block public access or complicate fire and wildlife management.
- Mining-claim, leasing and right-of-way collisions with cultural sites, listed species and wilderness study areas.
- Attempted adverse possession or quiet-title against land that, in civil-law domaine public, is imprescriptible, or that, in U.S. law, cannot be lost by ordinary prescription.
- Disposal or declassification that strips public-use protection without a lawful planning or déclassement process.
- Unsettled Indigenous title, treaty and subsistence claims over lands labelled public domain.
- In the copyright homonym: copyfraud (claiming rights in a public-domain work), false public-domain marks, and jurisdiction mismatch (a U.S. government work is public domain in the United States but may still be protected abroad).
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of public domain this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- United States: "public domain" in land law means original federal lands (and exchanges); FLPMA "public lands" is the broader BLM estate and includes acquired lands. The original thirteen states and Texas were never part of that public domain in the General Land Office sense.
- Remaining BLM acreage is about 99.8% in twelve western states; Alaska and Nevada together hold nearly half.
- Thirty historic "public land states" (Alabama through Wyoming, including Alaska) are the states that once contained public domain at its greatest extent.
- France, Belgium, Spain and much of Latin America use domaine public / dominio público for inalienable public-use property of the state or a commune; the state's alienable holdings are domaine privé / dominio privado, which is still public ownership.
- United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand speak of Crown land or public land, not "public domain," for the territorial estate.
- Louisiana mixes civil-law public things (Civil Code arts. 449-452) with U.S. federal public-domain remnants.
- Copyright "public domain" varies by term (life plus 50 versus life plus 70; U.S. 95-year term for many corporate works) and by whether government works are dedicated (17 U.S.C. § 105) - a work can be public domain in one country and in copyright in another.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of public domain this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- copyright public domain (Wikidata Q19652) - Test: does exclusive intellectual-property right still subsist in a work? If the question is about a text, image, dataset or invention, this is the sense; if the question is about a tract's title, affectation and alienability, it is not.
- FLPMA public lands - Test: is the tract administered by BLM regardless of how the United States acquired it? Public lands include acquired lands; original public domain is the never-alienated (or exchange) subset. OCS and Indian trust lands are excluded from both.
- acquired federal lands - Test: did the United States obtain the tract by purchase, condemnation, gift or exchange after the original public-domain acquisition, rather than by the 1781-1867 territorial estate? Mineral leasing statutes split on this test.
- national forest, national park, wildlife refuge - Test: which agency holds jurisdiction and under which organic act? These are typically reserved or withdrawn from the public domain (or separately acquired) and are not BLM "public lands" under 43 U.S.C. § 1702(e).
- Crown land - Test: is title in the Crown under a Commonwealth legal system? Same family of sovereign territorial estate; the U.S. and civil-law names are not used.
- domaine privé of a public person - Test: is the property affected to public use or to a specially fitted public service? If not, a French public owner holds it in the private domain: alienable, prescriptible, ordinary civil leases.
- res communis / things common to all - Test: does a public person own it? Air, the high seas and (in French Civil Code art. 714) some common things belong to no one; public domain is owned by the state or another public person.
- commons / common land - Test: is the legal form a customary or statutory use-right over land that may still have a private or manorial owner? Public domain is sovereign title (or civil-law public ownership), not a residual common-right overlay.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of public domain this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- public domain lands - Wex definition: lands or interests owned by the United States and administered by Interior through BLM; origin in state cessions; concentration in the eleven western public-land states plus Alaska; disposal under FLPMA planning.
- 43 U.S.C. § 1702 - Definitions (Federal Land Policy and Management Act) - Statutory definition of "public lands" as land and interests owned by the United States and administered by BLM, excluding the Outer Continental Shelf and lands held for Indians, Aleuts and Eskimos; also defines withdrawal.
- Public Land Statistics 2023 - Acquisition of about 1.8 billion acres of public domain (1781-1867); about 1.3 billion acres transferred out; BLM now administers about 244.4 million surface acres and about 712.9 million acres of federal subsurface mineral estate; glossary distinction between public-domain lands and acquired lands.
- The Federal Land Management Agencies - About 640 million acres of federal surface land (about 28% of the United States); BLM 244 million acres concentrated in twelve western states; FLPMA multiple-use and sustained-yield mandate.
- public domain (Q19652) - The Wikidata item attached to this English name is the copyright-status sense ("no exclusive intellectual property rights apply"); Getty AAT 300055611 scope note recorded there names both government land and unprotected publications.
- Public domain - The homonymous intellectual-property sense: works to which no exclusive IP rights apply because they expired, were waived, or never attached; Creative Commons Public Domain Mark as a label, not a licence.
- About CC0 - "No Rights Reserved" - CC0 as a waiver attempting to place an in-copyright work as nearly as possible into the copyright public domain; Public Domain Mark reserved for works already free of known copyright restrictions worldwide.
- Domaine public en droit public français - French public-law definition: immovable or movable property of a public person affected to direct public use or to a public service with indispensable fitting-out (CG3P arts. L. 2111-1 and L. 2112-1).
- Fiche 6 - Domaine (famille "domanialité") - Conseil d'État teaching note: public-domain property is inalienable and imprescriptible; natural versus artificial public domain; special maritime, fluvial, road, rail, aeronautical and radio-spectrum domains.
What the second pass must settle
- Does this registry entry mean the physical public realm, a jurisdiction-specific public landholding category, or copyright public domain despite its PHY / PHY.OBJ placement?
- What is the intended unit of modelling: an individual public place, a connected network of spaces, or an aggregate public estate?
- Which jurisdictions and authoritative records determine public character, access arrangements and powers to restrict use?
- Should privately owned publicly accessible spaces and spaces open only by customary tolerance be included, and under which explicit distinctions?
- Which accessibility criteria and observation intervals are needed to make public-use assessments dependable for the intended users?