Wrapping Information in Contract: How Does it Affect the Public Domain?

Contracts are an essential tool in the distribution of information. If a specific element of information has any commercial value at all, its access and use will most likely be governed by the terms of a license, whether it is protected by an intellectual property or not. The central question addressed in this chapter is whether the use of contracts with respect to the distribution of public domain information bears any impact on the supply of information and on the composition of the public domain. Would contracts that restrict the use of public domain information or limit the exercise of uses privileged under the law be actually enforced by the courts? If so, would the use of contracts in the trade of information tend to increase the amount of information available to the public anyway? Or would it, on the contrary, withdraw from the public domain some elements of information that were until then freely available?