Happy Public Domain Day 2022!

On January 1 each year, the world gets a little freer as many creative, historical, and scientific works — some famous, many more out of print and little known — come out of the copyright closet and enter the public domain. On January 1, 2022, these will include all the works first published in the…

Happy Public Domain Day 2021

On January 1 each year, the world gets a little freer as many creative, historical, and scientific works — some famous, many more out of print and little known — come out of the copyright closet and enter the public domain. On January 1, 2021, these will include all the works first published in the…

(This is a "Page")Cases about the Public Domain

Sometimes determining whether a work is in the public domain is difficult, because of questions about authorship, formalities, the scope of the public domain, or questions about the relationship of copyright laws in various countries. Here are a few high-profile cases of litigation about the public domain: Extending Copyright to Public Domain Works Copies of…

(This is a "Page")The Public Domain

What’s the public domain? It’s the term for works that are free of particular legal restrictions, and thus available for the public to use. The term is particularly used in copyright circles, but is also seen in discussing patents and trademarks. In copyright terms, the public domain is specific to particular countries, and is not…

(This is a "Page")Creative Commons licenses

A Creative Commons (https://creativecommons.org/) license is simply a permission by the author or copyright holder for other people to re-distribute the work, or make other uses that the author permits. For instance, an author may wish to allow translations and other derivative works, but require attribution, the author could apply a CC-BY license. If an…