Public domain
Public domain refers to the legal status of a creative work once prior copyright protections expire.
History
The concept of public domain is found in Article 1, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power,
- “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Rights to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”[1]
Once a cultural or historical work is entered into the public domain, it becomes available for use by everyone without restrictions.
On 1 January 2022, due to the Music Modernization Act, works published or registered in 1926 joined pre-1925 works already in the public domain. This included approximately 400,000 sound recordings made before 1923. On 1 January 2024, all materials with authorized publication dates before 1929 (and all pre-1924 sound recordings) that were published in the United States, are in the U.S. public domain. Similar laws in Europe, for example, are stricter and more complex.
