As of 2024, works published in the U.S. in 1928 or before are in the public domain. In order to determine if a work is in the public domain or not, typically you can check Wikipedia or do an internet search and just make sure that it was published in the current year that works fall into the public domain or before. However, every now and then, you will want to check the status of a work that is more recent than the year for public domain, or your work falls into one of the exception areas. These databases and tools can help you make a decent initial determination of copyright status. I’ve tried to outline a lot of the exceptions here, but in some cases, you will need to consult with an intellectual property attorney to make an absolute determination of copyright status.
If a person is famous and recognizable, you could still get in trouble for misusing their rights of publicity after their death. And, even if an image has been dedicated to the public domain or is Creative Commons licensed, make sure not to defame or insult anyone, even if they are not a celebrity. And if you do, make sure that you have a very, very good reason and that you have all of your facts straight:
Self-Defense for Filmmakers
– Entertainment Law Resources
It’s also possible that a public domain work is a derivative work that is based on a work that is still in copyright. For example, It’s a Wonderful Life fell out of copyright due to a clerical error, but the story that it is based on is still in copyright. So the base story or screenplay would not be usable.
Please remember as well that a film itself may be in the public domain, but the soundtrack in isolation may not be.
Be careful of using long-running characters from multiple works, because all of the works may not yet be in the public domain:
“Enola Holmes” and the Case of the Overreaching Copyright Owner
– Copyright Lately
Also, just because you can’t find the copyright status of a work does not mean that it’s in the public domain. It may be an “orphan work” – a work of unknown copyright status. Don’t use a work and then get sued because the actual copyright owner decided to finally come out of the shadows:
Deconstructing “Orphan Works”
– Center for Art Law
And, even though attribution of public domain material is not required, it’s good form to put any material that you did not create in your credits:
Welcome to the Public Domain
– Stanford Copyright and Fair Use Center
- How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work
– U.S. Copyright Office
The US Copyright Office will do a copyright search for you for a fee and provide a written report. - Works from 1978 to present
– U.S. Copyright Office Database - Duration of copyright: Works created on or after January 1, 1978
– Cornell Law - The Catalog of Copyright Entries – 1891 – 1978
– University of Pennsylvania Libraries - Books published in the US between 1923 and 1963
– Stanford Copyright Renewal Database
“The period from 1923-1963 is of special interest for US copyrights, as works published after January 1, 1964 had their copyrights automatically renewed by statute, and works published before 1923 have generally been in the public domain. Between those dates, determining whether a work’s registration was renewed as required has been a challenge.”
The general rule is that a work published in the U.S. is in the public domain 95 years after the initial publication date. From the entry for Copyright law of the United States on Wikipedia: “The Copyright Law of the United States grants monopoly protection for ‘original works of authorship’. With the stated purpose to promote art and culture, copyright law assigns a set of exclusive rights to authors: to make and sell copies of their works, to create derivative works, and to perform or display their works publicly. These exclusive rights are subject to a time limit, and generally expire 70 years after the author’s death or 95 years after publication. [whichever expiration comes first -ed.] In the United States, works published before January 1, 1928, are in the public domain.”
The following sites can give you a more nuanced view and information on works newer than 95 years past initial publication date. Some of them are a little out of date on calculations, but the general information should still be solid, and they may have useful diagrams and charts. If your case is complex, please check out “More Information and Exceptions” below
- Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States
– Cornell University Libraries - Copyright duration annotated diagram
– Public Domain Sherpa - Copyright duration diagram – works first published in the US
– Public Domain Sherpa - Copyright duration diagram – works first published outside the US
– Public Domain Sherpa - Tree-view chart on Copyright Law
– CopyrightData.com
- All Sound Recordings Prior to 1923 Will Enter the US Public Domain in 2022
– The Public Domain Review
The Music Modernization Act of 2018 rectified a strange situation where sound recordings were not included in the Copyright Act of 1909. This is apparently because the music industry was too young to be included at the time. The new law clarifies the resulting mishmash of local and state laws under a single federal ruling. But even with this ruling, it does, however, mean that music and sound recordings are behind when most other U.S. works fall into the public domain by several years. - A Possible Exception for the Pre-1928 Public Domain Rule
– University of Pennsylvania Libraries
“In my FAQ on How Can I Tell Whether a Book Can Go Online? I state that books published before 1928 are generally in the public domain in the United States. While that’s generally true, a controversial 1996 ruling in the US Ninth Circuit may imply that certain foreign works published between July 1, 1909, and December 31, 1927, are still subject to copyright, if they had neither been published in the US, nor published with a copyright notice recognized by US law, prior to 1928. The jurisdiction of the Ninth Circuit covers Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.” - FAQ: How To Find Out Whether a Copyright Was Renewed?
– University of Pennsylvania Libraries - One-Page Guide to Copyright Law
– CopyrightData.com - Searching Copyright Status (part 1 of 3)
– CopyrightAdvice – YouTube - List of Countries’ Copyright Lengths
– Wikipedia - Deconstructing “Orphan Works”
– Center for Art Law - Orphan Works and Mass Digitization: A Report of the Register of Copyrights
– U.S. Copyright Office
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