Copyright & Fair Use: Public Domain

A public domain work is a creative work that is not protected by copyright and which may be freely used by everyone.

More information available at:

University of Minnesota Libraries

Stanford University Libraries

There are four common ways that works arrive in the public domain:

1. the copyright has expired
2. the copyright owner failed to follow copyright renewal rules
3. the copyright owner deliberately places it in the public domain, known as “dedication,” or
4. copyright law does not protect this type of work                  

- More

As a general rule, most works enter the public domain because of old age including:

• any work published in the United States before 1923
• works that were published before 1964 and copyright was not renewed. (Renewal was a requirement for works published before 1978.)

A smaller group of works fell into the public domain because they were published without copyright notice (copyright notice was necessary for works published in the United States before March 1, 1989).

Use the Copyright Slider Tool to determine is a work is still protected by copyright.

Many public domain resources can be found on the web.