Works in the public domain have no copyright and can be used without permission, although other laws and agreements may restrict their use. The public domain includes works in which the copyright has expired, most works published by the U.S. federal government (not necessarily state governments), and works dedicated to the public domain.
Note: For collections, selections, or arrangements of public domain materials, there may be a copyright in the whole of the work although individual parts of the collection may be public domain.
CBS Sunday Morning: Public domain, where art lives after copyright
Mnemonic for What is in the Public Domain
An easy way to remember what’s in the public domain is FRIDGE:
- Facts: Not protectable by copyright
- Recipes/Methods: Not protectable by copyright
- Ideas: Not protectable by copyright
- Dedicated Works: Works in which the author has dedicated the work to the public domain, irrevocably giving up their rights
- Government Works: Works created by US Government employees in the course of their employment aren’t protectable by copyright law in the United States
- Expired Works: Works in which the copyright has expired are no longer protected by copyright and are considered to be in the public domain.
Resources about the Public Domain
- Welcome to the Public Domain – NOLO Overview hosted at Stanford
- Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States – Chart from Cornell for determining U.S. public domain status
- Is it in the Public Domain? – Handbook from Berkeley for determining U.S. public domain status
- State Government Copyright Resource Center – Website from Harvard for determining U.S. public domain status of state governmental documents
- Public Domain Trouble Spots – This NOLO material hosted at Stanford addresses intricacies of the public domain.
