Public domain

Lore & Background

The term 'public domain' did not come into use until the mid-19th century, but its concept dates to ancient Roman law, which defined things that cannot be privately owned as res nullius, res communes, res publicae, and res universitatis. The phrase 'fall in the public domain' can be traced to mid-19th-century France to describe the end of copyright term, though the exact wording and its attribution to a specific poet are not established in widely-known historical sources.

Reader's Guide

The public domain is a foundational concept in intellectual property law, representing works that are no longer in copyright or were never protected. Its boundaries vary by country and jurisdiction, as rights depend on registrations and laws that differ across nations. The public domain includes works created before copyright existed, works whose copyright has expired, works not covered by copyright laws (such as Newtonian physics formulae and cooking recipes in the United States), and works actively dedicated by authors. It serves as a source for building blocks of new knowledge, with values identified by Pamela Samuelson including the creation of new knowledge. The term is sometimes used interchangeably with 'public sphere' or 'commons', though definitions vary, with some regarding it as a negative space of unprotected works and others including uses permitted by copyright exceptions. Notable examples of public domain works include those by William Shakespeare, Ludwig van Beethoven, Miguel de Cervantes, and Leonardo da Vinci.

Did You Know?

• The phrase 'fall in the public domain' originated in mid-19th-century France.
• In the United States, items excluded from copyright include ideas, facts, and principles, though their specific expression may be copyrightable.

The Patchwork of Global Copyright Terms

The public domain is not a single, unified concept across the world. In most African and Asian nations, along with Belarus, Bolivia, and New Zealand, a creator's work becomes freely available fifty years after their death. Bangladesh, India, and Venezuela extend that window to sixty years. Across much of Europe, South America, and parts of western Africa, the standard is seventy years after death for works published during the creator's lifetime, though unpublished material granted to a first publisher carries a separate twenty-five-year term. This means a single book can be freely reproducible in one country while still under copyright in another, and the exact year a work becomes public domain shifts depending on where you stand.

A Constellation of Voices Entering Freedom

German novelist Thomas Mann, whose Buddenbrooks and Doctor Faustus are celebrated for their dense symbolism and penetrating exploration of the artist's inner life, joins the freely available canon alongside French essayist Léon Werth, Italian novelist Guido Battelli, and British writer Clemence Housman. American letters gain James Agee, author of A Death in the Family, and Dale Carnegie, whose How to Win Friends and Influence People has guided generations. The arts world welcomes poets Wallace Stevens and Paul Claudel, Swiss composer Arthur Honegger, Italian composer Francesco Balilla Pratella, and Russian composer Isaak Dunayevsky. Film and screenwriting contribute the work of director Lloyd Bacon and screenwriters William C. deMille and Robert Riskin, while visual artists Yves Tanguy and Fernand Léger see their canvases freed. In the sciences and philosophy, the publications of Albert Einstein, Sir Alexander Fleming, Hermann Weyl, Herbert Stanley Jevons, and Spanish thinker José Ortega y Gasset (in European countries outside Spain) all become openly accessible.

Legislative Shifts and Their Long Echoes

When a nation lengthens its copyright term, the ripple effects can span decades.

American Icons Cross the Threshold

Among the literary treasures now unshackled are William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Dashiell Hammett's complete novel The Maltese Falcon, and Agatha Christie's first Miss Marple mystery, The Murder at the Vicarage. Young readers' canon gains the original Nancy Drew story The Secret of the Old Clock and the first Dick and Jane Elson-Gray Readers. Stage and poetry contribute Noël Coward's Private Lives and T. S. Eliot's Ash Wednesday. The novel shelf fills with Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, John Dos Passos' The 42nd Parallel, Edna Ferber's Pulitzer-winning Cimarron, Dorothy L. Sayers' Strong Poison, J. B. Priestley's Angel Pavement, Olaf Stapledon's science fiction Last and First Men, W. Somerset Maugham's Cakes and Ale, and Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness. Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents joins in its original German. Children's literature welcomes The Little Engine That Could, Swallows and Amazons, and The Cat Who Went to Heaven.

Gallery