Where Do I Find Public Domain Works?

Public domain information is works that a person, usually a writer, has created and has lost the copyright to or that never had the information copyrighted in the first place. This is very beneficial to those that are in need of information to try to promote their business or that would like to use whatever information they can find to help them in writing a book or article.

One of the best and fastest ways to find public domain sources is to check on the internet. If you use the keywords public domain, you will find a source of information that you will be able to search.

There are some things you need to know regarding public domain before you use the information that you find. Any works that have been published prior to the year 1923 are within public domain and can be used without penalty of infringement rights. However, even though there may be no copyrights within the United States, there may be copyrights in another country. Prior to using any information, make sure that you research the information to see if there is an owner of copyrights in, for instance, England.

Congress passed a law regarding copyrights in 1992 giving the writer of works that were published between the years 1964 and 1978 automatic renewal of their copyrights. However, these rights were not given to works published prior to 1923 and therefore, are not retroactive. This means that any works published prior to 1923 remain as public domain.

Any works that were created on or after January 1, 1978 which were previously copyrighted by the author were given a copyright lasting the life the author, plus an additional 50 years. With the new copyright laws in effect, these works are now protected for the life of the author, plus an additional 70 years.

Therefore, it is imperative that should you find public domain information that you would like to use that you do a very thorough search. This is to be sure that the information found as public domain is actually free to use.

Should you have any doubts, you can always contact the Copyright Office, an attorney that specializes in copyright material or a copyright search firm. Explain what you have found and give them the following information:
The date that the work was published or registered with the Copyright Office;
The name of the author or business that created the work;
The title of the work and any possible variants of the title;
If available, where the work was first published;
The copyright number.

If you follow these simple tips, you should be able to find public domain information that will be useful to you.