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What can safely be considered to be in the “Public Domain?”


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What is in the Public Domain?

The Public Domain is comprised of all works that for whatever reason are not protected by copyright and can be used without permission. I am not a professional in this area, but from my reading I gather that the public domain includes work with the following characteristics:

1)     Originally Non-copyrightable - items that by their very nature are not eligible for copyright protection include:
        a)     Facts
        b)     Ideas
        c)     Names
        d)     Titles
        e)     Short phrases
        f)      Blank forms

2)     Lost Copyright - works which previously had copyright protection, but subsequently lost protection due to owner error.
        a)     It’s all but impossible to lose copyright protection under current laws but previous statutes were less forgiving.
        b)     Any work published before January 1, 1978 that did not contain a valid copyright notice may be considered to be in the public domain.
        c)     Owners of works published between 1978 and March 1, 1989 that did not contain a valid copyright notice had a five year grace period to correct the problem of publication without notice before their work became part of the public domain.

3)     Expired Copyright - all works for which the statutory copyright period has expired.
        a)     Any work published before 1964 for which the copyright owner failed to renew the copyright.
        b)     Any work published more than 95 years ago will have an expired copyright and fall into public domain.
        c)     Copyrighted work whose owner has been deceased for 50 years will fall into the public domain.

4)     Government Documents - documents and publications authored by the Federal government are public domain.
        a)     You may copy or distribute government documents, such as a law, statute, agency circular, federal report, or any other document published or generated by the federal government.
                i)     It's important to understand that this means work authored by the Federal Government. If a private contractor authors the work for the Government, then the work is copyrighted.
                ii)     Government documents may be distributed with a copyright claim in value added such as formatting, indexing, summaries and comments. If you suspect a government document may contain such copyrightable elements, you can remove all formatting and design elements. Use a text editor like MS Word to delete added comments or other third party additions.

5)     Works Granted to the Public Domain - Copyrightable works enter the public domain if the copyright owner grants the work to the public domain. Granting work to the public domain is a complete abandonment of all rights. You can't make something "public domain for non-commercial use." If your work is public domain, other people can even modify it slightly and put their name on it.

Facts and ideas can't be copyrighted, but their expression and structure can; you can always write the facts in your own words. Again, I want to stress that  I am not a professional in this area, these are just the guidelines that I go by. Please be certain that you don't violate a copyright, it's just not nice and you certainly wouldn't like it if someone violated your work.

Placing a disclaimer on your work or website when using something you copied is not good enough, even if you don't know the original source.

Basically, after lots of reading and research, this is what I've come up with. I'm not a lawyer, and I could easily be mistaken on some points so be careful. 

Sources of Clip Art in the Public Domain


For further help: 

Artist's Rights - online education regarding the redistribution of graphics and other copyrighted materials via the internet

 

Give Credit Where Credit is Due - Excellent tutorial about why proper credit must be given on the same page where authorized copyrighted material is used.

 

Cyber Crew Copyright Committee - A great resource for copyright information with a message forum for questions and to discuss matters of copyright.

   
The Copyright Renewal Database is a searchable database of copyright renewal records of the US Copyright Office between 1950 and 1992 for books published in the US between 1923 and 1963, a period of special interest for US copyrights, as works published after January 1, 1964 had their copyrights automatically renewed by statute, and works published before 1923 have fallen into the public domain. Records include title, author, registration and renewal dates, registration number, renewal ID, and renewing entity.

The Copyright Clearance Center is an online resource for obtaining permission for use of copyrighted materials.

Index of Public Domain Resources  will help you find additional information and resources pertaining to US copyright.

Business Network Services gives an excellent explanation of online copyright issues, etiquette, law, and basic definitions regarding copyrights.


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