Warning: what you’re about to read is not legal advice. It’s simply a summary of public domain law and some tips that business owners can use. Please do not confuse it with legal advice.

Many business owners would be hard-pressed to describe what the “public domain” is. However, it’d be beneficial for them to know exactly what it means and how they can benefit from works included in it. Public domain works are those with expired copyrights and those that have copyright eligibility. These works don’t belong to anyone, so they can be used by the public.

Using work that belongs to the public has its benefits. For one, there is no permission to be granted for use. Second, there are no fees associated with using the work. People who use works that are in the public domain also have the option to create different works that are based on the public domain work without it being considered illegal.

These things appeal to business owners.

But you really have to be careful when attempting to use works in the public domain.

For instance, revisions and translations of a work in a public domain may be fully protected under copyright laws. Likewise, countries other than the United States may have public domain laws that differ greatly from American ones. Don’t be surprised to find that works considered to be public domain in the United States are protected in other countries.

Is it public domain or not?

Use these guidelines for assistance.

Ask yourself this:

- Is the works an idea or fact

- Did it come from the U.S. government? Was the writer a government employee?

- Is it a scientific law, principle, theory or math formula

- Is it a research method, statistic method or an education process?

- Is the works a proper name, symbol, sign, number, word, punctuation or a rule of language

- Has the works failed to renew its copyright

- Has it exceed its expiration date?

If the work falls into any of these categories, it may be under the public domain.

There’s more.

Works that were created before the year of 1923 are also considered to be the same.

It gets a little complicated for works that were published after 1923. Here are some rules that can help you quickly determine if what you have is something that you can use.

Works published without a notice during between 1923 and March 1, 1989 is in the public domain.

Works published without a notice and registration between 1978 and March 1, 1989 are in the public domain.

Works published between 1923 and 1963 that haven’t had their copyright renewed are in the public domain.

All published and unpublished works after March 1, 1989 are not in the public domain and are protected by copyright for 70 years after the death of the author.

If you can find public domain works out there, by all means, use them. They can be lucrative sources of material if you use them correctly.