Public Domain Mastery

Rules and Definitions for Public Domain Works

When creative works are referred to as being “in the public domain,” this signifies that they are either not, or that they are no longer, protected under copyright law.

A creative work can be anything: a book, a play, audio recordings, music, sheet music, films, photographs, posters & illustrations, courses, articles, instruction manuals, etc.

There are a number of reasons why something might be in the public domain. The most common three reasons being that:

1. the copyright on the work has expired; or
2. it was never copyrighted; or
3. it is/was not eligible to be copyrighted.

When a work is in the public domain, then anyone is free to use it, or parts of it, in almost any way they wish. This includes republishing and reselling it either as a whole work, or dissecting parts of it for republishing, or modifying the original work and using it as a basis for a new or revised work. No royalties are due or payable to the original creator of the work.

Some Items That Are Not Eligible for Copyright Protection

There are a number of categories of works that are ineligible for copyright protection. Some of these include:

• Words, names, slogans and most short phrases cannot be copyrighted (although some of these can be trademarked);
• Blank forms used to record information are in the public domain;
• Common property: height and weight charts, tape measures, rulers, calendars, etc. (although the design component and photos or illustrations on a chart or calendar can be);
• Recipes: a list of ingredients is not copyrightable, but explanations, methodologies and notes in a recipe can be.

U.S. Federal Government Produced Works

Another major and important source includes U.S. Federal government works. Whether published or unpublished, if it is prepared by an officer (elected or appointed official, including the president and supreme court justice) or employee of the U.S. federal government within the performance of their duties to the government, then it is in the public domain. This includes a huge amount of material: speeches, letters, documents, nearly everything published by the U.S. printing office, IRS, CIA, FBI, FTC, Copyright Office, Patent Office, and all other Federal agencies (with the obvious exception of classified materials).

The logic behind this is that because the materials produced by these agencies were tax payer funded, they therefore belong to the public. Note that this logic does not apply to other English speaking countries. For example, Canadian government material is “copyrighted under the crown,” which leads me to suspect that the same would apply in other Commonwealth countries such as the UK, Australia & New Zealand, South Africa, India and Malaysia.

There are some exceptions to U.S. government works. For example, most works published by the U.S. Postal Service after 1972 are copyright protected. Also, if the work was created for the U.S. Federal government or one of its agencies by an independent contractor, then generally it is not public domain. Also the public domain rule does not necessarily apply to state or local government works.

The profit possibilities from this treasure trove of U.S. government material are only limited by your imagination. I’ve heard of an individual who has made a killing, if you’ll pardon the pun, by taking the official Navy Seals Manual and modifying it to create his own ‘Special Forces Handbook’ to resell to military enthusiasts.

Take a look at the homepage of USA.gov to get an idea of some of the available categories, which include topics such as Money & Credit and Small Business. And if you are a Spanish speaker, many U.S. gov’t websites include mirrored content in Spanish, which is also public domain.

Rules for Works Published in the United States

Outside of items which are either not eligible for copyright protection, that have been donated to the public domain, or that are in the public domain by default, remain all other works. This is the greater body of created works.

The following table defines the copyright coverage periods for works published within the United States.