The term public domain may bring your local city park to mind. But public domain is generally used to refer to anything that is not protected under copyright law. A work is said to be in the public domain if it is not protected by copyright, or if the copyright for it has expired. A “work” can mean anything from a book to a play, song, photograph, movie, map, manual, a poster, a computer program or a report.
Anything created by a human being is subject to copyright.
The creator of such a work is given exclusive rights by a copyright, so that he or she can distribute it, sell it, reproduce it and so on.
So, of all the works in existence, which ones are considered public domain?
Here are some guidelines as to what is considered public domain, for works published in the United States.
Strange Dates
The strange dates are the result of various domestic and international copyright laws. For instance, the copyright law of 1909 gave copyright protection of two consecutive terms of 28 years each, if a renewal application was filed with the Copyright Office before the first period expired. The copyright act of 1976 extended the second 28 year period to 47 years. In 1992 a law was passed by Congress which basically eliminated the need to file a copyright renewal application. This made any work published between 1964 and 1977 automatically renewed for an additional 47 years.
So it is possible that a work granted copyright protection under the 1976 law could have that protection for up to 75 years. But, if it was not renewed, protection could expire much sooner.
No copyright notice?
You should know that since March 1, 1989, it is not even necessary to have a copyright notice on a work for it to be protected, so don’t make the mistake of assuming some recently-published book is public domain just because you don’t spot a copyright notice.
Works published outside the U.S. are generally considered public domain if their date of publication was before July 1, 1909, but be sure to consult a competent attorney before making any assumptions about such works.
In addition to works that fall into the public domain arena as defined in the box above, there are other categories of public domain material. Generic information such as facts, figures, titles, numbers, etc. are all public domain. All works of the U.S. federal government and its agents are public domain. When considering state works, however, be careful; they may be copyrighted and so may not be public domain items.
If it’s on the Internet…
Since there are so many things available for free on the Internet, many assume anything published on the web is automatically public domain and free for the taking. That’s a myth! Even so-called “free clip-art” is not public domain material. It is made available by the website owner for certain purposes, but that is not the same as public domain.
You should know that violating copyright laws can bring heavy fines. Never assume anything you find on the Internet can be automatically used for any purpose you choose. Look for a ‘terms of use’ statement on a website if you are wanting to use any material you find there. That applies to graphics, articles or even an advertisement. Often website contents may be used for non-commercial purposes only, if at all. Don’t guess; you could find out the hard way that you have used copyrighted material.
You would be equally wrong to assume that just because a book is out of print that it is automatically a public domain work. Books go out of print all the time; this does not make them a public domain work.
Alibris is a good place to look for public domain content. Here you can find physical books, as well as music and movies. They aren’t free, of course, but you can pick up many books for virtually pennies on the dollar. The home page is reproduced in part below.
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