This paper reports results from a large recent study of the public domain in the European Union. Based on a combination of catalogue, commercial and survey data we present detailed fi gures both on the prices (and price di fferences) of in copyright and public domain material and on the usage of that material. Combined with the estimates for the size of the EU public domain presented in the companion paper Pollock and Stepan (2009) our results allow us to provide the fi rst quantitative estimate for the `value' of the public domain (i.e. welfare gains from its existence) in any jurisdiction.