What is Public Domain?

The public domain consists of works that are free of copyright. This means you don’t need permission to use, alter or share these works. For instance, many classic artworks and literature are in the public domain.

Image: There are 3 reasons a work can be in the public domain: The copyright expired. The creator dedicated the work to the public domain. The work was never entitled to copyright protection.

Expired copyright: life +70 years
In the European Union copyright expires 70 years after the death of the maker.
If a company holds the copyright or the creator is anonymous 70 years after first publication. ​
It's also possible a work was never entitled to copyright to begin with. For more information on this, read the segment on Copyright Basics in this wiki.

How do you recognize a Public Domain work
It can be difficult to recognize if a work is in the public domain. There are two labels that can be used to make a public domain work recognizable as such:


Although public domain works are free of copyright, you should take note of the following:


Where do you find public domain works
Not all public domain works will be marked with a CC0 license or a Public Domain mark. There are however websites that offer mainly public domain sources. For example Project Gutenberg, Public Domain Review, Europeana, Flickr’s the Commons, the Smithsonian and the Rijksmuseum. Check out the next segment for more handy sources.