Public domain is the mass of intellectual property (books, songs, movies, etc.) that is not protected by copyright, trademark, or patent laws and is available for the public to use freely. Reasons a work is not copyright protected include:
- The copyright term has expired.
- The author/creator failed to secure copyright.
- Works of the United States government.
Copyright has expired for all works published in the United States before 1923. As such, we are free to use these works without permission. Due to passage in 1998 of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, no new works will fall into the public domain until 2019 when copyright expires for works published in 1923.