A public domain work is a creative work that is not protected by copyright and which may be freely used by everyone.
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There are four common ways that works arrive in the public domain:
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As a general rule, most works enter the public domain because of old age including:
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.