Public Domain Overview: How the Public Domain Works

The public domain is a pool of creative work readily available to whoever wants to use or profit from it without obtaining permission from a copywriter holder. Suppose a creative product is in the public domain. In this case, no one owns the rights to the intellectual property in question, and anyone has fair use to profit from or otherwise implement the creative work for their own purposes.

The exact rules of the public domain in the United States vary depending on the date of publication, largely due to multiple amendments made to the Copyright Act of 1976 that created specific stipulations and complications for possible term extensions.

According to US copyright law, there are two main ways for a work to enter the public domain: Either the copyright term expires, or the work did not have a copyright in the first place. Here are some simplified rules to navigate copyright status:

• Life of the author: For most works published after 1977, the copyright expires seventy years after the death of the author or last remaining author. The same rule applies to unpublished works with known authors.
• Publication date: On public domain day (January 1), any work whose publication date was ninety-five years ago enters the public domain, provided the first publication date was before 1977 but after 1923.
• Creation date: Unpublished works by unknown authors become copyright-free 120 years after their creation.
• Dedication: Authors can decide to dedicate a work to the public, immediately granting it public domain status.
• Faulty filing: Sometimes, works enter the public domain due to issues when filing the copyright.
• Government status: If an employee of the federal government created the work, it’s most likely in the public domain. There are some exceptions, but US government works usually fall into the public domain.
• Ideas: Ideas automatically enter the public domain since they are not eligible for federal copyright. This logic applies to things like titles, catchphrases, and facts. For example, if someone writes a song about a historical event, they can copyright the song but not the event itself.
• Compilation status: Anthologies, “best of” collections, and other compilations have a complicated relationship to the public domain. Even if all the original works are individually in the public domain, the collection itself may have a longer term of copyright if it presents the material in a new and creative way. These works will enter the public domain several decades after publication or the creator’s death, depending on their initial publication date.

Here are some types of public domain materials.

1. 1. Old books: Every year, on January 1, new works enter the public domain. On that date, any work whose publication date was ninety-five years ago enters the public domain, provided its publication date was before 1977 but after 1923. For example, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926) joined the public domain on January 1, 2022.
2. 2. Old films: Movies made before 1964 are generally in the public domain, while movies made after 1964—that are not registered with the Library of Congress—are in the public domain unless someone from the original production can claim the copyright. Additionally, every year the Library of Congress selects older movies to add to the public domain based on their cultural merit.
3. 3. Old sound recordings: It was impossible to copyright recordings on the federal level until the 1970s, making their entry into the public domain a little more complicated. The Music Modernization Act of 2018 opened up music published before 1923—one hundred years after its original recording. For example, Down Home Blues by Ethel Waters, recorded in 1921, entered the public domain in 2022.
4. 4. Presidential speeches: Since the president is a government employee, their speeches are in the public domain, whether they belong to Abraham Lincoln or Barack Obama.

Works in the public domain and in the Creative Commons are free to use, but they are different in the eyes of the US Copyright Office. The public domain is a home for works with either expired copyrights or no copyright protection. Works with a Creative Commons license have protection under copyright laws; their copyright owners, however, choose to let the public use the copyrighted works in ways that traditional copyright licenses don’t support.

Get the MasterClass Annual Membership for exclusive access to video lessons taught by business luminaries, including Sara Blakely, Chris Voss, Robin Roberts, Bob Iger, Howard Schultz, Anna Wintour, and more.