Public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired,[1] been forfeited,[2] expressly waived, or may be inapplicable.[3] Because no one holds the exclusive rights, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission.
As examples, the works of
As rights vary by country and jurisdiction, a work may be subject to rights in one country and be in the public domain in another. Some rights depend on registrations on a country-by-country basis, and the absence of registration in a particular country, if required, gives rise to public-domain status for a work in that country. The term public domain may also be interchangeably used with other imprecise or undefined terms such as the public sphere or commons, including concepts such as the "commons of the mind", the "intellectual commons", and the "information commons".[7]
History
Although the term domain did not come into use until the mid-18th century, the concept can be traced back to the ancient Roman law, "as a preset system included in the property right system".[8] The Romans had a large proprietary rights system where they defined "many things that cannot be privately owned"[8] as res nullius, res communes, res publicae and res universitatis.[9] The term res nullius was defined as things not yet appropriated.[10] The term res communes was defined as "things that could be commonly enjoyed by mankind, such as air, sunlight and ocean."[8] The term res publicae referred to things that were shared by all citizens, and the term res universitatis meant things that were owned by the municipalities of Rome.[8] When looking at it from a historical perspective, one could say the construction of the idea of "public domain" sprouted from the concepts of res communes, res publicae, and res universitatis in early Roman law.[8]
When the first early copyright law was originally established in Britain with the Statute of Anne in 1710, public domain did not appear. However, similar concepts were developed by British and French jurists in the 18th century. Instead of "public domain", they used terms such as publici juris or propriété publique to describe works that were not covered by copyright law.[11]
The phrase "fall in the public domain" can be traced to mid-19th-century France to describe the end of
Definition
Definitions of the boundaries of the public domain in relation to copyright, or intellectual property more generally, regard the public domain as a negative space; that is, it consists of works that are no longer in copyright term or were never protected by copyright law.
Public domain by medium
This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2018) |
Books
A public-domain book is a book with no copyright, a book that was created without a license, or a book where its copyrights expired[17] or have been forfeited.[clarification needed][18]
In most countries the
A notable exception is the United States, where every book and tale published before 1929 is in the public domain; US copyrights last for 95 years for books originally published between 1929 and 1978 if the copyright was properly registered and maintained.[19]
For example: the works of Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, Machado de Assis, Olavo Bilac and Edgar Allan Poe are in the public domain worldwide as they all died over 100 years ago.
Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive and Wikisource make tens of thousands of public domain books available online as ebooks.[20][21][22]
Music
People have been creating music for millennia. The first musical notation system, the Music of Mesopotamia system, was created 4,000 years ago. Guido of Arezzo introduced Latin musical notation in the 10th century.[23] This laid the foundation for the preservation of global music in the public domain, a distinction formalized alongside copyright systems in the 17th century. Musicians copyrighted their publications of musical notation as literary writings, but performing copyrighted pieces and creating derivative works were not restricted by early copyright laws. Copying was widespread, in compliance with the law, but expansions of those laws intended to benefit literary works and responding to commercial music recording technology's reproducibility have led to stricter rules. Relatively recently, a normative view that copying in music is not desirable and lazy has become popular among professional musicians.[original research?]
US copyright laws distinguish between musical compositions and sound recordings, the former of which refers to melody, notation or lyrics created by a composer or lyricist, including sheet music, and the latter referring to a recording performed by an artist, including a CD, LP, or digital sound file.[24] Musical compositions fall under the same general rules as other works, and anything published before 1925 is considered public domain. Sound recordings, on the other hand, are subject to different rules and are not eligible for public domain status until 2021–2067, depending on the date and location of publishing, unless explicitly released beforehand.[19]
The Musopen project records music in the public domain for the purposes of making the music available to the general public in a high-quality audio format. Online musical archives preserve collections of classical music recorded by Musopen and offer them for download/distribution as a public service.
Films
A public-domain film is a film that was never under copyright, was released to public domain by its author, or whose copyright has expired. All films in the United States before January 1st, 1929 have been entered in the Public Domain.
Value
Pamela Samuelson has identified eight "values" that can arise from information and works in the public domain.[25]
Possible values include:
- Building blocks for the creation of new knowledge, examples include data, facts, ideas, theories, and scientific principle.
- Access to cultural heritage through information resources such as ancient Greek texts and Mozart's symphonies.
- Promoting education, through the spread of information, ideas, and scientific principles.
- Enabling follow-on innovation, through for example expired patents and copyright.
- Enabling low cost access to information without the need to locate the owner or negotiate rights clearance and pay royalties, through for example expired copyrighted works or patents, and non-original data compilation.[26]
- Promoting public health and safety, through information and scientific principles.
- Promoting the democratic process and values, through news, laws, regulation, and judicial opinion.
- Enabling competitive imitation, through for example expired patents and copyright, or publicly disclosed technologies that do not qualify for patent protection.[25]: 22
Relationship with derivative works
Derivative works include
Once works enter into the public domain, derivative works such as adaptations in book and film may increase noticeably, as happened with Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel The Secret Garden, which became public domain in the US in 1977 and most of the rest of the world in 1995.[33] By 1999, the plays of Shakespeare, all public domain, had been used in more than 420 feature-length films.[34][35] In addition to straightforward adaptation, they have been used as the launching point for transformative retellings such as Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead and Troma Entertainment's Tromeo and Juliet.[36][37][38] Marcel Duchamp's L.H.O.O.Q. is a derivative of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, one of thousands of derivative works based on the public domain painting.[29] The 2018 film A Star is Born is a remake of the 1937 film of the same name, which is in the public domain due to an unrenewed copyright.[39]
Perpetual copyright
In some countries, certain works may never fully lapse into the public domain. In the
While the copyright has expired for the Peter Pan works by
In a
Public domain mark
In 2010, The Creative Commons proposed the Public Domain Mark (PDM) as symbol to indicate that a work is free of known copyright restrictions and therefore in the public domain.[43][44] The public domain mark is a combination of the copyright symbol, which acts as copyright notice, with the international 'no' symbol. The Europeana databases use it, and for instance on the Wikimedia Commons in February 2016 2.9 million works (~10% of all works) are listed with the mark.[45]
Application to copyrightable works
Works not covered by copyright law
The underlying idea that is expressed or manifested in the creation of a work generally cannot be the subject of copyright law (see
Works created before the existence of copyright and patent laws also form part of the public domain. For example,
Expiration of copyright
Determination of whether a copyright has expired depends on an examination of the copyright in its source country.
In most countries that are signatories to the
In the United States, determining whether a work has entered the public domain or is still under copyright depends upon what the law or regulation was at creation, and whether new regulations have grandfathered in certain older works. Because
Legal traditions differ on whether a work in the public domain can have its copyright restored. In the European Union, the Copyright Duration Directive was applied retroactively, restoring and extending the terms of copyright on material previously in the public domain. Term extensions by the US and Australia generally have not removed works from the public domain, but rather delayed the addition of works to it. However, the United States moved away from that tradition with the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, which removed from the public domain many foreign-sourced works that had previously not been in copyright in the US for failure to comply with US-based formalities requirements. Consequently, in the US, foreign-sourced works and US-sourced works are now treated differently, with foreign-sourced works remaining under copyright regardless of compliance with formalities, while domestically sourced works may be in the public domain if they failed to comply with then-existing formalities requirements—a situation described as odd by some scholars, and unfair by some US-based rightsholders.[46]
The Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, a German art museum, sued Wikimedia Commons in 2016 over photographs uploaded to the database depicting pieces of art in the museum. The museum claimed that the photos were taken by their staff, and that photography within the museum by visitors was prohibited. Therefore, photos taken by the museum, even of material that itself had fallen into the public domain, were protected by copyright law and would need to be removed from the Wikimedia image repository. The court ruled that the photographs taken by the museum would be protected under the German Copyright Act, stating that since the photographer needed to make practical decisions about the photograph that it was protected material. The Wikimedia volunteer was ordered to remove the images from the site, as the museum's policy had been violated when the photos were taken.[47]
Government works
Works of various governments around the world may be excluded from copyright law and may therefore be considered to be in the public domain in their respective countries.[48] They may also be in the public domain in other countries as well. The legal scholar Melville Nimmer has written that "it is axiomatic that material in the public domain is not protected by copyright, even when incorporated into a copyrighted work".[49]
Dedicating works to the public domain
Release without copyright notice
Before 1 March 1989, in the US, works could be easily given into the public domain by just releasing it without an explicit
Public-domain-like licenses
An alternative is for copyright holders to issue a license which irrevocably grants as many rights as possible to the general public. Real public domain makes licenses unnecessary, as no owner/author is required to grant permission ("Permission culture"). There are multiple licenses which aim to release works into the public domain. In 2000 the WTFPL was released as a public domain like software license.[53] Creative Commons (created in 2002 by Lawrence Lessig, Hal Abelson, and Eric Eldred) has introduced several public-domain-like licenses, called Creative Commons licenses. These give authors of works (that would qualify for copyright) the ability to decide which protections they would like to place on their material. As copyright is the default license for new material, Creative Commons licenses offer authors a variety of options to designate their work under whichever license they wish, as long as this does not violate standing copyright law.[54] For example, a CC BY license allows for re-users to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon material, while also agreeing to provide attribution to the author in any of these cases.[55] In 2009 the Creative Commons released the CC0, which was created for compatibility with law domains which have no concept of dedicating into public domain. This is achieved by a public domain waiver statement and a fallback all-permissive license, in case the waiver is not possible.[56][57] Unlike in the US, where author's moral rights are generally not specifically regulated, in some countries where moral rights are protected separately in law it is not possible to waive those rights, but only the rights related to the exploitation of the work. A solution to this issue (as found in the Creative Commons Zero dedication) is to interpret the license by setting "three different layers of action. First, the right holder waives any copyright and related rights that can be waived in accordance with the applicable law. Secondly, if there are rights that the right holder cannot waive under applicable law, they are licensed in a way that mirrors as closely as possible the legal effect of a waiver. And finally, if there are any rights that the right holders cannot waive or license, they affirm that they will not exercise them and they will not assert any claim with respect to the use of the work, once again within the limits of applicable law. (...) In countries where moral rights exist but where they can be waived or not asserted, they are waived if asserted (e.g. the UK). In countries where they cannot be waived they will remain into full effect in accordance to the applicable law (think of France, Spain or Italy where moral rights cannot be waived)."[58] The same occurs in Switzerland.
The
In October 2014, the
Patents
In most countries, the term of rights for patents is 20 years, after which the invention becomes part of the public domain. In the United States, the contents of patents are considered valid and enforceable for 20 years from the date of filing within the United States or 20 years from the earliest date of filing if under 35 USC 120, 121, or 365(c).[65] However, the text and any illustration within a patent, provided the illustrations are essentially line drawings and do not in any substantive way reflect the "personality" of the person drawing them, are not subject to copyright protection.[66] This is separate from the patent rights just mentioned.
Trademarks
A trademark registration may remain in force indefinitely, or expire without specific regard to its age. For a trademark registration to remain valid, the owner must continue to use it. In some circumstances, such as disuse, failure to assert trademark rights, or common usage by the public without regard for its intended use, it could become
Because trademarks are registered with governments, some countries or trademark registries may recognize a mark, while others may have determined that it is generic and not allowable as a trademark in that registry. For example, the drug acetylsalicylic acid (2-acetoxybenzoic acid) is better known as aspirin in the United States—a generic term. In Canada, however, Aspirin, with an uppercase A, is still a trademark of the German company Bayer, while aspirin, with a lowercase "a", is not. Bayer lost the trademark in the United States, the UK and France after World War I, as part of the Treaty of Versailles. So many copycat products entered the marketplace during the war that it was deemed generic just three years later.[citation needed]
Informal uses of trademarks are not covered by trademark protection. For example,
Public Domain Day
Public Domain Day is an observance of when
The observance of a "Public Domain Day" was initially informal; the earliest known mention was in 2004 by Wallace McLean (a Canadian public domain activist),[70] with support for the idea echoed by Lawrence Lessig.[71] As of 1 January 2010,[update][72] there is as Public Domain Day website lists the authors whose works are entering the public domain. There are activities in countries around the world by various organizations all under the banner Public Domain Day, this can help people around the world celebrate works written a while ago.
See also
- Public records
- Center for the Study of the Public Domain
- Copyfraud
- Copyleft
- Copyright status of works by the federal government of the United States
- Copyright Term Extension Act
- Eldred v. Ashcroft
- Fair dealing
- Free-culture movement
- Free software
- Freedom of panorama
- Limitations and exceptions to copyright
- List of countries' copyright lengths
- List of films in the public domain in the United States
- Millar v Taylor
- Orphan works
- Paying public domain
- Protection of Classics
- Public Domain Enhancement Act
- Public domain image resources
- Public domain in the United States
- Public domain software
- Rule of the shorter term
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-300-13740-8. Archivedfrom the original on 14 February 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-84720-921-4. Archived from the originalon 20 December 2014. Retrieved 27 October 2016.
- ^ "Works Unprotected by Copyright Law". bitlaw.com. Archived from the original on 2 March 2016.
- ^ "Copyright Protection Not Available for Names, Titles, or Short Phrases" (PDF). copyright.gov. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 April 2016.
Listings of ingredients, as in recipes, labels, or formulas. When a recipe or formula is accompanied by an explanation or directions, the text directions may be copyrightable, but the recipe or formula itself remains uncopyrightable.
- ^ "SERPENT - A Candidate Block Cipher for the Advanced Encryption Standard". 1999. Archived from the original on 13 January 2013.
Serpent is now completely in the public domain, and we impose no restrictions on its use. This was announced on 21 August at the First AES Candidate Conference.
- ^ * "ImageJ Disclaimer". rsb.info.nih.gov. 28 January 2016. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84542-282-0. Archivedfrom the original on 19 November 2011.
- ^ S2CID 153766621.
- .
- JSTOR 20059173.
- ISBN 978-1-84542-487-9.
- ISBN 978-1-84542-487-9.
- ISBN 978-1-84542-487-9.
- ISBN 978-1-84542-282-0. Archivedfrom the original on 19 November 2011.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-84542-282-0. Archivedfrom the original on 19 November 2011.
- ISBN 978-1-84542-282-0. Archivedfrom the original on 19 November 2011.
- ISBN 978-0-300-13740-8. Retrieved 30 December 2016 – via Internet Archive.
public domain.
- ISBN 978-1-84844-391-4. Retrieved 30 December 2016 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States". Cornell University. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
- ^ Preston, Sherry (9 October 2023). "Cover to Cover: Access thousands of books on Project Gutenberg". Star-Herald. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ Robertson, Adi (31 March 2020). "The National Emergency Library is offering free ebooks — but is it lending or piracy?". The Verge. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ "What is Wikisource?". The University of Edinburgh. 26 August 2021. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
- ^ Otten, J. "The Catholic Encyclopedia". New Advent. Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
- ^ "Copyright Registration of Musical Compositions and Sound Recordings" (PDF). United States Copyright Office. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
- ^ ISBN 978-9-0411-24357. Archivedfrom the original on 18 December 2014.
- SSRN 1647584.
- ^ Stern, Richard H. (2001). "L.H.O.O.Q. Internet related Derivative Works". Supplemental material Computer Law 484. The George Washington University Law School. Archived from the original on 19 August 2018. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
- ISBN 0-256-16448-7.
- ^ ISBN 978-90-411-0938-5. Archived from the originalon 6 April 2015.
- ISBN 978-1-4133-0893-8. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
- ISBN 978-1-4133-0858-7.
- ^ Stim, Rich (4 April 2013). "Public Domain Trouble Spots". Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center. Public Domain Works That Are Modified. Archived from the original on 18 May 2016.
- ISBN 978-0-8153-3841-3. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
- ^ Young, Mark (ed.). The Guinness Book of Records 1999. Bantam Books. p. 358.
- ^ Voigts-Virchow, Eckartm (2004). Janespotting and Beyond: British Heritage Retrovisions Since the Mid-1990s. Gunter Narr Verlag. p. 92.
- ISBN 978-0-8214-1550-4. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
- ISBN 978-3-7003-1492-9. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-521-61486-3. Retrieved 1 June 2010.
- ^ Lenker, Maureen Lee (10 July 2022). "Everything you need to know about the 1937 version of 'A Star Is Born'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-1950-46458.
- ^ "Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48)". Office of Public Sector Information. 1988. p. 28. Archived from the original on 1 June 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2008.
- ^ WIPO Secretariat (24 November 2010), Note on the Meanings of the Term "Public Domain" in the Intellectual Property System with special reference to the Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Traditional Cultural Expressions/Expressions of Folklore, Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore: Seventeenth Session, retrieved 28 November 2018
- The H. 12 October 2010. Archived from the originalon 16 October 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
- ^ Peters, Diane (11 October 2010). "Improving Access to the Public Domain: the Public Domain Mark". Creative Commons. Archived from the original on 14 October 2010. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
- ^ Category:CC-PD-Mark Archived 12 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine in February 2016
- ^ Karjala, Dennis (2008). "Judicial Oversight of Copyright Legislation". Northern Kentucky Law Review. 35: 253.
- ISSN 1747-1532.
- ^ "Copyright Office Basics" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 February 2009.
- ^ Nimmer, Melville B., and David Nimmer (1997). Nimmer on Copyright, section 13.03(F)(4). Albany: Matthew Bender.
- ^ "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States". Cornell University Copyright Information Center. Archived from the original on 26 September 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
- ^ "Copyright Notice", U.S. Copyright Office Circular 3, 2008. Archived 26 September 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ "About CC0 — "No Rights Reserved"". Creative Commons. Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
- ^ "do What The Fuck you want to Public License Version 1.0". anonscm - Debian. March 2000. Archived from the original on 2 June 2013.
- JSTOR j.ctt1npvzg.12.
- ^ "About CC Licenses". Creative Commons. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
- ^ "11/17: Lulan Artisans Textile Competition". 17 June 2009. Archived from the original on 31 December 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
- ^ Kreutzer, Till (2011). "Validity of the Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication and its usability for bibliographic metadata from the perspective of German Copyright Law" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 May 2017.
- ISSN 2641-435X.
- ^ "The Unlicense: A License for No License". ostatic.com. 24 February 2016. Archived from the original on 24 March 2016.
- ^ "Unlicense Yourself: Set Your Code Free". Unlicense.org. 4 January 2010. Archived from the original on 8 July 2018.
- ^ "BSD 0-Clause License (0BSD) Explained in Plain English". Retrieved 12 February 2020.
- ^ "Conformant Licenses". opendefinition.com. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016.
- ^ Vollmer, Timothy; Vézina, Brigitte; Miyara, Jocelyn; Benedict, Connor; Wetzler, Jennryn; Hollich, Shanna; Murray, Corrine (27 December 2013). "Creative Commons 4.0 BY and BY-SA licenses approved conformant with the Open Definition". Creative Commons. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
- ^ "Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and License (PDDL)". Open Data Commons: legal tools for open data.
- ^ Manual of Patent Examining Procedure available at "MPEP". Archived from the original on 18 April 2015. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
- ^ Officer, Office of the Chief Communications. "Terms of Use for USPTO Websites". Archived from the original on 25 September 2009. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
- ^ "SPAM® Brand and the Internet". Hormel Foods. Archived from the original on 13 October 2009.
- ^ McCarthy, Kieren (31 January 2005). "Hormel Spam trademark case canned". The Register. Archived from the original on 7 July 2008. Retrieved 2 September 2008.
- ^ a b Richmond, Shane (1 January 2010). "Happy Public Domain Day! Here's to many more". Telegraph Blogs. Archived from the original on 15 May 2012. Retrieved 24 December 2011.
- ^ McLean, Wallace J. (1 January 2004). "Happy Public Domain Day!". American University. Archived from the original on 3 June 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2016.
- ^ Lessig, Lawrence (1 January 2004). "Public domain day - in Canada (Lessig Blog)". Lessig.org. Archived from the original on 7 November 2011. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
- ^ "Public Domain Day 2010". MetaFilter. Archived from the original on 14 October 2012.
External links
- Center for the Study of the Public Domain, Duke University
- Communia, internet association on the digital public domain