We all know about copyright law, right? What few people fail to realize is that copyrights expire. Yep, just like the date on your milk container; copyrights expire and when they do; they pass into the public domain.
Public domain contains knowledge and innovation to which absolutely no one can establish proprietary rights. What this means for you and me is that basically anything that is contained within the public domain is up for grabs. Furthermore, the amount of knowledge and information contained within the public domain is quite substantial and more is being added everyday because copyrights are continuing to expire each and every day at an amazing rate.
What is contained within the public domain:
- Unpublished works from authors who died before 1935.
- Works published in the US before 1923.
- Works published without a copyright notice from 1923 through 1977.
- Works published without notice, and without subsequent registration from 1978 to March 1, 1989.
- Works published with notice but copyright was not renewed from 1923 through 1963.
- Works published outside the US before July 1, 1909.
- Works published outside the US in compliance with US formalities between July 1, 1909 and 1922.
Works published outside the US between 1923 and 1977 and in the public domain of its home country as of January 1, 1996. Anytime a copyright expires, that work goes up for grabs too.
I am not lawyer and information here is only for informational purposes. See the Disclaimer at the bottom of this page.
