What exactly is the Public Domain

So what Exactly is the Public Domain

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Understanding the Public Domain

Fortunately for us, privately created and owned materials are not always protected by the famous/infamous copyright law. When copyrights expire, the works they once protected move into what is called the public domain, which is where we swoop in to make our money. Although there are, or can be, certain limitations, in general, formerly copyrighted works that have become a part of the public domain are now free to be recreated and/or redistributed without the permission, or authorization, of the previous copyright owner(s).

Aside from works with expired copyrights, the public domain is also the home of Government, Legislative and Judicial forms and documents, as well as certain material created without the proper copyright notices. Keep in mind that the latter reason does not apply to all uncopyrighted or unproperly copyrighted works, as new laws have been put in place to protect these works as well. As a rule of thumb always verify that the work is part of the public domain before before using it, to protect yourself from the harsh penalties of the copyright laws. I will explain how to verify if a specific work is freely available under the public domain later on in this section.

Having at least a basic working knowledge of copyright law will certainly benefit you in finding and using public domain materials. However, one helpful point to remember is that in the United States all works created before 1923 are now in the public domain, but that does not mean that these older works are all that you will be able to recover. In fact, there are literally millions of other recent works, now in the public domain due to the copyright owners failure to renew and the failure to affix a proper copyright notice to said works.