This article is missing information about the public domain status of documentary evidence in court cases. Please expand the article to include this information. Further details may exist on the talk page.(March 2018)
Works are in the public domain if they are not covered by the intellectual property right known as copyright, or if the intellectual property rights to the works have expired.[1] Works automatically enter the public domain when their copyright has expired.[2] The United States Copyright Office is a federal agency tasked with maintaining copyright records.
All works first published or released in the United States before January 1, 1929, have lost their copyright protection 95 years later, effective January 1, 2024. In the same manner, works published in 1929 will enter the public domain as of January 1, 2025, and this cycle will repeat until works published in 1977 enter the public domain on January 1, 2073. Works of corporate authorship will continue to adhere to the ninety-five year term following the 2073 date. Under current copyright law, beginning in 2049, 1978 and beyond works by creators who died seven decades earlier will expire each year.[3] For example, if a creator were to die in 2002, their works' copyright would last throughout the end of 2072 and enter the public domain on January 1, 2073.
Works that were published without a copyright notice before 1977 are also in the public domain, as are those published before March 1989 if the copyright was not registered within five years of the date of publication, and those published before 1964 if the copyright was not renewed 28 years later.[4][5]
^Boyle, James (2008). The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind. CSPD. p. 38. ISBN 9780300137408.
^"Edison voice recording is old, but not the oldest". nbcnews.com. October 26, 2012. Retrieved August 17, 2016.
^"For the First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works Will Enter the Public Domain". Smithsonian.
^"Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States | Copyright Information Center". copyright.cornell.edu.
^The Renewal Trapdoor
and 28 Related for: Public domain in the United States information
have expired. Works automatically enter thepublicdomain when their copyright has expired. TheUnitedStates Copyright Office is a federal agency tasked...
copyright laws, and are therefore inthepublicdomain; for example, intheUnitedStates, items excluded from copyright include the formulae of Newtonian physics...
example, the film Metropolis entered theUnitedStatespublicdomainin 2023, but under current EU copyright law, the film will remain under copyright in Germany...
in Blue made in 2020 could be protected by copyright even though the underlying composition lies inthepublicdomain. IntheUnitedStates, although case...
IntheUnitedStates, eminent domain is the power of a state or the federal government to take private property for public use while requiring just compensation...
recordings that were published in 1923 enter thepublicdomain. The most famous work to enter thepublicdomainintheUnitedStatesin 2024 is Walt Disney and...
expires, it enters thepublicdomain. The following is a list of works that entered thepublicdomainin 2019. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status...
The following is a list of creators whose works enter thepublicdomain on 1 January 2022. When copyright expires in a creative work, it enters the public...
authorization. Since publicdomain rights vary based on jurisdiction, the passage of a work into thepublicdomain is not worldwide. IntheUnitedStates, no additional...
ThePublicDomain Enhancement Act (PDEA) (H.R. 2601 (108th Congress), H.R. 2408 (109th Congress)) was a bill intheUnitedStates Congress, first introduced...
entered thepublicdomainin part of the world in 2014 inthe following Post mortem auctoris countries and regions. A work enters thepublicdomainin most...
which is inthepublicdomain. UnitedStates v. Torres, 911 F.3d 1253 This article incorporates text from this source, which is inthepublicdomain., 1255...
expires, it enters thepublicdomain. The following is a list of works that entered thepublicdomainin 2011. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status...
expires, it enters thepublicdomain. The following is a list of works that entered thepublicdomainin 2012. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status...
expires, it enters thepublicdomain. The following is a list of works that entered thepublicdomainin 2017. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status...
Global Information
