Public Domain consists of works that are not protected by copyright law.  That is what defines Public Domain.  No permission to use is required from the copyright holders, if they were copyright holders in the first place.

Some works were never copyrighted when originally produced.  Think of all the free software we can simply download and use, for example.   And as I mentioned the other day in my post, much of the reports and other materials published by the many divisions of the U.S. government are copyright free.  All of the agencies of the federal government have material that can be copied and downloaded, or physically obtained, and used in a multitude of ways in various business enterprises.  There are photos available for all of the National Parks, photos of wildlife, photos of our cities and towns and highways, photos chronicling past historical events  – even photos of our paper money and coins produced at our mints.  You simply access the government sources for this material and often it is simply a matter of downloading what you want, or obtaining the physical item,  and sizing it and re-working it to use in a variety of repackaged product offerings.

Again, when it comes to published works, copyright law must not be overlooked.

Basic copyright guidelines

• anything published in the U.S. before 1923 is in the Public Domain
• for works published between 1923 and 1978 in the U.S.,  that do not have a valid copyright notice, they are in the Public Domain
• for works published in the U.S. between 1923 and 1963, that did not renew their copyright in the 28th year following first publication, they are in the Public Domain.

Note:   This is a small amount of information on copyright restrictions to make you aware of the basics.  You are individually responsible to be certain you are following the law on copyright, if any, concerning your chosen “work.”  This is nothing to fear, though!  You just need to know!

The Public Domain is a huge universe to be tapped into and I will talk about some ways to profit in a small business using Public Domain material.

Till next time,

Jackie