Research Guides: Copyright and Fair Use Guide: Public Domain

What is the Public Domain?

A work in the public domain is one that is ". . .no longer under copyright protection or [one that] failed to meet the requirements for copyright protection. Works in the public domain may be used freely without the permission of the former copyright owner" (copyright.gov).

You may use a public domain work without obtaining permission.

Attributing / citing the work is still advised so that you and others can locate the original.

Is This Work in the Public Domain?

All works published in the United States before Jan 1, 1929, are in the public domain; copyright restrictions no longer apply.

Works published between 1929 and 1989 may or may not be in the public domain, depending on whether they met certain requirements for notice, registration, and renewal. Verify sources from this period carefully.

Works published after 1989 are most likely fully protected by copyright. They may only be used with permission, unless their creator has taken steps such as applying a Creative Commons license to proactively permit specific kinds of use. Some exceptions may apply for government documents.

Copyright Term and the Public Domain
This chart from Cornell University Library can help you to determine a work's likely copyright or public domain status.

Tools to verify registration and renewal of works between 1929 and 1989:

U.S. Copyright Office: Copyright Public Records Portal
Searchable database, primarily for 1978-present
Copyright Renewals, 1923-1963
Searchable database from Stanford University Libraries
Copyright Registration and Renewal Records, 1910-1978 (plus partial earlier records, 1789-1909)
NOT a searchable database. Must select year and work format/type; then access Google Books or Project Gutenberg transcriptions; then read or try searching within file (with caveat that OCR may be imperfect).