LibGuides: Copyright and Creative Commons: Public Domain

What is Public Domain?

The public domain is generally refers works that are either ineligible for copyright protection or with expired copyrights. No permission whatsoever is needed to copy or use public domain works.

What falls into the Public Domain?

Categories of material that are generally not eligible for federal copyright protection include:

Ideas and facts
Works with expired copyrights
Works governed by early copyright statutes that failed to meet the requirements for copyright protection, i.e., notice, registration, and renewal requirements
U.S. government works (projects written by non-government authors with federal funding may be copyright protected)
Scientific principles, theorems, mathematical formulae, laws of nature
Scientific and other research methodologies, statistical techniques and educational processes
Laws, regulations, judicial opinions, government documents and legislative reports
Words, names, numbers, symbols, signs, rules of grammar and diction, and punctuation

Other Public Domain Resources

The Public Domain
Duke University Law Professor James Boyle's site discussing the balance between intellectual property and the public domain -- including free downloadable versions of his Yale University Press book.
Center for the Study of the Public Domain @ Duke University
The Center for the Study of the Public Domain's mission is to promote research and scholarship on the contributions of the public domain to speech, culture, science and innovation, to promote debate about the balance needed in our intellectual property system and to translate academic research into public policy solutions.

When do works pass into the Public Domain?

DATE OF WORK	PROTECTED FROM	TERM
Created 1-1-78 or after	When work is fixed in tangible medium of expression	Life + 70 years (or if work of corporate authorship, the shorter of 95 years from publication, or 120 years from creation²
Published before 1923	In public domain	None
Published between 1923 - 63	When published with notice³	28 years + could be renewed for 47 years, now extended by 20 years for a total renewal of 67 years. If not so renewed, now in public domain
Published between 1964 - 77	When published with notice	28 years for first term; now automatic extension of 67 years for second term
Works ceated before 1-1-78 but not published	1-1-78, the effective date of the 1976 Act which eliminated common law copyright	Life + 70 years or 12-31-2002, whichever is greater
Works created before 1-1-78 but published between then and 12-31-2002	1-1-78, the effective date of the 1976 Act which eliminated common law copyright	Life + 70 years or 12-31-2047 whichever is greater

Adapted from : WHEN U.S. WORKS PASS INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN by Lolly Gasaway-University of North Carolina