Our public domain tools, on the other hand, enable authors and copyright owners who want to dedicate their works to the worldwide public domain to do so, and facilitate the labeling and discovery of works that are already free of known copyright restrictions. Use this universal tool if you are a holder of copyright or database rights, and you wish to waive all your interests that may exist in your work worldwide.
Because copyright laws differ around the world, you may use this tool even though you may not have copyright in your jurisdiction, but want to be sure to eliminate any copyrights you may have in other jurisdictions. This usually involves some unique selection process, for example, a poetry scholar compiling a book— The Greatest Poems of e.
As of , copyright has expired for all works published in the United States before In other words, if the work was published in the U. These rules and dates apply regardless of whether the work was created by an individual author, a group of authors, or an employee a work made for hire. Because of legislation passed in , no new works fell into the public domain between and due to expiration.
In , works published in expired. In , works published in will expire, and so on. If a work was written by several authors and published after , it will not expire until 70 years after the last surviving author dies. Thousands of works published in the United States before fell into the public domain because the copyright was not renewed in time under the law in effect then.
If a work was first published before , the owner had to file a renewal with the Copyright Office during the 28th year after publication. No renewal meant a loss of copyright. If you plan on using a work that was published before , you should research the records of the Copyright Office to determine if a renewal was filed.
Sometimes an author deliberately chooses not to protect a work and dedicates the work to the public. This type of dedication is rare, and unless there is express authorization placing the work in the public domain, do not assume that the work is free to use. Project Gutenberg is a good resource for finding literary works in the public domain. See the Instructors' resources for more suggestions about how to locate works in the public domain.
Note : The information obtained from or through this website is provided as guidelines for using works for educational purposes and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Contact copy sfu.
The Copyright Officer is not a lawyer or legal expert in copyright law and is able to provide a professional and not a legal opinion. If the work was published in the United States prior to , it is in the public domain. For works published between and March 1, , it depends on whether the certain statutory formalities were observed, such as providing a notice of copyright or following proper procedure for renewing the copyright.
Copyright Office. If the work was published in the United States between and without a notice , it is in the public domain. Note: If the work published during this period has a notice, it may be protected for 95 years from the date of publication. If the work was published in the United States between and March 1, without a notice and was not registered within the next five years , it is in the public domain.
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