The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-free Writings, Music, Art & More

Truth be told, I first borrowed this book from the library, then renewed it, so I see that I will want to have my own copy on hand as reference. It is clear, easy to use, and thorough. There is a ton of information on how to find and use material that is copyright free, making it immensely useful for many types of writers and artists. This is not about profiting off the work of others. Many creative individuals enjoy dipping back into the past in order to create new works, make commentary, or utilize unique visual material. This book shows you how to do so legally and economically.

I made the mistake of buying the first edition of this book (published in 2001), but found it to be an excellent guide to the legal issues involved with public domain textual material. I have already published one book which relied heavily on public domain materials, and am working on a second, and when I bought this book I had several specific questions that I was trying to answer. This book answered all of them, as well as some that I hadn't thought of! I'll probably end up buying the second edition, just to see what has changed in the last few years.

Haven't had a chance to use this book to it's full potential as of yet but I have visited a few site that are listed nothing tangible. Although, I originally purchased this book for a particular project I had in mind. It does help me think about cultivating new ideas to work from. LV

The Public Domain shows you how you can make money with public domain books, articles, music, and more. It reveals sources of public domain books, articles, music, and so on, both old and new. Because it thoroughly examines public domain, especially legal aspects of it including finding out whether or not a work is in the public domain, it can help keep you avoid legal problems.

If you are looking for material or inspiration for any creative endevour, this book offers a huge source of material, content and ideas.

This is a great "how to" book on negotiating the tricky slopes of using any kind of materials with or without copyrights. There is some repetition, but it allows you to read the chapters you need as stand-alines. Good for background on understanding U.S. copyright law and the changes for different time periods

Fantastic guide, covers everything you need to know about public domain. I have learned so much from this book. The author is extremely knowledgeable, the book is well organized and written. If you need to know public domain laws get the book!

This had so much good info in it that I bought another one for a friend.

“People and companies often get so upset about competitive uses that that they often file lawsuits even when the material invilved is not especially valuable”.

I had hoped to talk to the city, and show a few public domain movies, Such as “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians” in July, in a local park. The city has been battling a homelessness problem, coupled with an opioid epidemic coming out of covid, and it would be a nice break fir everyone.I already volunteer doing DJ work for seniors, at several sites.

The problem is if I did just that, the movie theaters in a nearby town, would most likely find a way to file a lawsuit, to protect their interests. Even though i would be in the right, being a disabled veteran, with little income, i could not afford a lawyer to defend myself in court, and would just get harrased.

And as horrible as it is “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”, is better than anything than Disney has produced in the last 3 years, so i can see why they’d be ticked off.Which is why you NEVER, see anyone doing public performances of old public domain movies, ANYWHERE.

Maybe if it was a stupid movie at a convention or something, you could get away with it. But as usual the law is weaponized against the average citizen in the US, and our rights are just trampled on by those with the money, to tie things up in court, with lawyers.

If you want to figure out how to access millions of hours of marvelous footage that is free to use, then look no further. This book is amazing.

When a work loses copyright protection, it falls into the Public Domain and can then be used freely by anyone, much like patents after 20 years. Copyright protection lasts much longer, 70 years after the death of the author, so care is needed in determining the status of any work before copying. The book on the Public Domain is based on US law, although UK law is very similar in most respects. There are some important exceptions however. Thus all US government works are by their constitution, automatically in the public domain, and the vast archives can be used freely by anyone (why doesn't the UK follow this lead?). All patents are also public property, everywhere, so an author can legitimately publish patents or patent diagrams freely, even before the 20 year limit is reached. And the number of copyright-free books, articles and papers are collected together in a growing number of websites, such as the famous Gutenburg project shows. The author of this book provides a detailed guide to researching such websites, and gives essential guidance to all those who want to use such sources. However, a number of institutions both in the USA and the UK, such as libraries and universities, make money from such free works by demanding a licence to use those works, an insidious process of theft from the public. We came across the practice when writing a new book on the Tay bridge disaster ( Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silvery Tay: Reinvestigating the Tay Bridge Disaster of 1879 (Revealing History) ), and we used a number of copyright-free photographs held by a university library. We paid the fee for use of the material in teaching texts, but when I subsequently used the same images in a book, an extra fee was demanded. I subsequently bought my own copies of the images on e-bay for a small sum, and to ensure that the public could use them freely, I downloaded them to Wikipedia Commons, where they now sit and are free for anyone to download and use as they wish. The university library has lost the publicity for such photographs by its own restrictive and miserly policies. And the book reviewed here discusses the same monopolistic practices in the USA. But there may be many other sources of those works, which will entail some research and diligence to discover. The Commons movement has grown apace as authors such as myself, scan and send such material to sites like Wikipedia for the public good. In other examples, I have placed my own forensic photographs on Wikipedia to illustrate failure phenomena for example, so others can benefit. The book on the Public Domain is a superb resource for all authors and others, such as teachers and lecturers, and as far as I know, is unique. However, it would be helpful if a British edition tuned to the UK resource base could be published.