Customer Reviews

The Public Domain: How to Find and Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
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Highly recommended! I'm an artist and musician and I've been waiting for a book like this for years. It's like a road map that lets you figure out what stuff you can use without permission (and without having to ask a lawyer if its okay). And there is a lot of free art out there ... not just old stuff but U.S. government art, etc. It's a very sharp, well-written book with lots of interesting trivia, too.

This fat and informative book is a goldmine for anyone interested in public domain works, whether writings, music, art, films or just about anything else. The author, Attorney Stephen Fishman, begins with an examination of copyright laws and the public domain. After that, the book begins each of the chapters on copyrightable materials with a handy checklist for use in determining public domain status, and then launches into a discussion of how to determine the public domain status of such an item. After those useful chapters, the author examines the use of copyrighted and public domain works.

This is one of the most useful books I have ever encountered. It contains most everything you need to know in determining the public domain status of a work, and it is organized in a simple, easy-to-use format (ala the ___ for Dummies books), that is sure to inform the reader, and never lose him or her. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in whether or not something is in the public domain, and thus open to free use.

NOLO writes legal books for the rest of us. I've used other NOLO books and gave this one a shot. I found this book to be a wonderful guide to the whole subject of public domain, from where to find it to how to use it effectively. It was also a great introduction to the history of public domain and its significance in the legal landscape of intellectual property. it's a great resourse for anyone that needs creative content for free!

As a writer of musical theatre, I am constantly brainstorming for new ideas and thinking about what works may be in the public domain to use. Finally there is a book that removes so much of the guess work. Stephen Fishman has written a book that is very "user friendly" and incredibly helpful. He gives all the important facts, and describes how to do your own research on copyright status (to avoid those heavy fees the goverment office charges!). It is also full of interesting sidebars, mini-charts of famous public domain works, tips, advice....everything you could ask for. I find myself just picking it up to flip through for fun....and now I practically I feel like an expert on the subject! In summary, this book is a must have!

I made the mistake of buying the first edition of this book (published in 2001), but found it to be an excellent guide to the legal issues involved with public domain textual material. I have already published one book which relied heavily on public domain materials, and am working on a second, and when I bought this book I had several specific questions that I was trying to answer. This book answered all of them, as well as some that I hadn't thought of! I'll probably end up buying the second edition, just to see what has changed in the last few years.

The Public Domain is not to be confused with books of public domain images published by Dover. As delightful as those books of art are, they don't provide what Nolo's book does: Knowledge. You'll get explanations, definitions, and guidance on where and how to find and use royalty-free art, music, writing, databases, and other works legally.

Most of us just assume that if something is in the public domain we are free to use it in any way, but that's not true. If you work in any arts from music to writing to art and web design, this book is a must-have. It has the potential to keep you out of twenty kinds of trouble if you follow its tips and heed its lessons.

Here's an example of how the book works for me: I'm currently writing a non-fiction book and am doing my own photography. The book is about historically haunted places in southern California. There are times when, in addition to my own photos, I'd like to include a historical shot or a map or drawing without jumping through hoops trying to get permissions. Here's another: The other day, I needed to know if I could use a photo I'd taken of an old photo hanging in an historic adobe. This book made it a snap to find out. It's also allowing me to choose items I need with a minimum of hassle for myself and my publisher.

The book is put together thoughtfully and logically, making research that could be a huge pain into something stress-free and manageable. This thorough and easy-to-understand legal book has become a must-have for me.

Dealing with public domain and copyright presents a thorny dilemma for writers and entrepreneurs. Nobody wants to be sued, or exploited, or miss out on the unprecedented opportunities.

If you want to know what works are in the public domain (ie copyright expired) there are 4 rules in this book. Here are two:

Rule 1: Everything published in the USA before 1923 is in the public domain.

Rule 2: Works initially published in the USA between 1923-1963 and not renewed are in the public domain.

So, whether you want to publish a classic poem on your website, or republish a classic book, or use a picture of a famous painting, or even a piece of music, you need to know the rules.

As you can imagine, the whole thing can get quite involved. That's why you need the book, as post 1923 material is more complicated.

If you want to get free material you can use this book as a great resource. I have downloaded a number of classic works for free. As you may know, a provider who sounds like my buddy Dougal has made many books available, and all books pre 1923 should be available at some point.

I hope you find this review helpful..

Below is a review of The Public Domain by Anthony Fishman.

I recently read the above book and while I found it helpful, I sometimes wondered if I could have obtained the same material by searching the Internet for several hours. On the other hand, the book does provide a template for helping you search for potentially useful public domain material (primarily through internet access), and a set of useful questions which help in the determination of copyright status. The book has 22 chapters covering areas like: The laws governing copyrights (author is an attorney); Public domain sources for the arts, music, writings, photography, movies/TV, computer SW, architecture, maps, choreography, databases, etc; Each chapter has an overview, and discussions on the sub-areas within the subject area. For example in the writing section, you would find sub-sections on fiction, non-fiction, copyright status, recipes, etc. There is focus on the legal aspects of what is considered public domain and what might be protected by copyright laws, which is helpful in our increasingly litigious society. The author asks many relevant questions which would help the person looking for public domain material determine the status of a particular body of work. Each chapter ends with sources of public domain material for the chapter area.

Overall, this book would be useful to a person involved in the creative arts, who wants to optimize their time and leverage public domain material from the past.

A copyright is the "right to copy." Only the owner of a copyright (to a book, article, song, film, etc.) can copy that book, etc., or give others (such as a publisher) permission to copy it.

However, the U.S. Constitution says that copyrights must EXPIRE after a LIMITED TIME (Article 1, Section 8), whereupon the work becomes PUBLIC DOMAIN. Then you, the public, are free to download that song, or write new Sherlock Holmes stories, or perform Shakespeare or Mozart.

Copyright's "limited time" has been repeatedly extended -- often due to big media lobbying. The 1790 Copyright Act set copyright protection at 14 years, renewable for another 14 years. By 1909, copyrights lasted 28 years, renewable for another 28. In 1976 copyright was set for "the life of the author plus 50 years," or 75 years for corporate owners. In 1998 copyright was extended to "life of the author plus 70 years," or 95 years for corporate owners.

Steve Forbes, of Forbes magazine, said of the 1998 extension: "It is fitting and proper that your creations be protected by law for your lifetime and a reasonable period afterward. But there is no justification for what Congress has been doing: transforming a limited monopoly into an unlimited one. Creativity and culture are enhanced by having works ultimately become public domain, particularly with the advent of the Internet."

Law professor, and Constitutional expert, Lawrence Lessig joined others in a lawsuit against the 1998 copyright windfall giveaway to big media. But in 2003, the Supreme Court rubber-stamped President Clinton and the Republican Congress's sweetheart gift to big media -- extending by decades the term before which a work enters the public domain.

This book not only provides guidelines to identifying works that ARE in the public domain, it's full of interesting and useful information, such as in its section on "The Looting of the Public Domain," which says: "Is it illegal to claim a copyright in a public domain work? Yes, it is, but the penalties for violations are laughably small. Claiming copyrights in public domain works is a federal crime, but the maximum penalty for engaging in this sort of criminal conduct is a fine of $2,500. 17 U.S.C. Section 506(c). Moreover, violators are rarely prosecuted."

Ever see those FBI warnings on DVDs? Severe penalties if you infringe a copyright owned by some media company. But if they release some film or book that's in the public domain, and lie by putting a bogus copyright notice on it, well, that's a slap on the wrist.

This book continues: "In effect, the federal government encourages spurious copyright claims. The potential economic rewards for making such claims are great, while the possibility of getting caught and paying a price is small. This book will help you recognize when copyright claims are, in fact, spurious."

As this book makes clear, it's often difficult to determine what works are in the public domain. It not only depends on how old a work is, but on whether its copyright was renewed (required, if registered pre-1978), or when it was first published, or, if it was never published, then what year the author died.

This book reveals that the U.S. Copyright Office can NOT tell you what's in the public domain and what isn't. They have no such master database. You must research each work on your own.

The book says: "it is relatively easy to research renewals for works published during 1950-1963, because the records are available online. But researching works published during 1923-1949 can be harder, because you may have to manually search through the U.S. Copyright office Catalog of Copyright Entries in a library that has a copy or at the Copyright Office in Washington D.C."

If you can't do that, you can hire the Copyright Office to do it for you ($165 an hour) or hire someone else, possibly at a cheaper rate.

Works created by government employees as part of their jobs are usually in the public domain. Usually.

If a museum holds a public domain painting, you may still be required to get permission to take or publish a photo of it, because the museum controls "access" to the painting.

This book discusses too many issues to mention: books, music, art, photography, films, TV, software, architecture, maps, choreography, databases, tiles, and foreign copyright registrations (a work may be protected in one country, but not in another.) Also, other legal theories by which a work can be protected: trade secrets, trademarks, right of privacy, right of publicty, etc.

Public domain should NOT be confused with FAIR USE.

The Fair Use doctrine, rooted in the First Amendment, lets you copy excerpts from PROTECTED works for purposes of news, education, research, criticism, and commentary. It also permits parodies. It's a complex doctrine because the law only gives guidelines -- you don't know if it's Fair Use until you're in court. Which means Fair Use is often decided by who can afford an expensive lawsuit.

Like public domain, Big Media has been working to erode Fair Use. In 1940, a New York federal district court ruled that it was Fair Use for authors to freely excerpt song lyrics in fiction (Broadway Music Corp. v. F-R Publishing Crop, 31 F.Supp. 817 (D.C.N.Y. 1940, now SDNY)). Excerpting a few lines of lyrics is a way for authors to comment on pop culture.

However, despite the favorable ruling, today it is industry practice to pay a license fee for even one line of poetry or lyric. The issue -- is copying a few lines of lyrics of poetry Fair Use? -- never went up to the Supreme Court, so the question remains unresolved. And rather than fight music publishers' lawyers, authors instead surrendered their Fair Use rights.

This book covers Fair Use, but only a little. It's not the main topic. This is a fine book to learn your Public Domain rights. But you'll want another book to really get the take on your Fair Use rights.

The main thing you learn from studying THE PUBLIC DOMAIN is that the issue is even more complicated than you might have originally thought. Except in very clear-cut cases, the law has so many layers, stipulations, and loopholes that, while you can 'assume' you're safe in using something, you cannot be not entirely 'sure' your assumptions would hold up in court if challenged.

If you wonder if you can use a certain piece of music in the soundtrack of your independent film, you may have to consider: when the original and subsequent arrangements, adaptations, or derivatives of the original were copyrighted; when and if the sheet music was published and whether it was published individually or as part as a compilation. Not to mention whether the US has copyright relations with the country of origin; or whether the laws prior to 1996 for most countries or 1973 for Russia apply. (1972 and 1978 also were turning points in US copyright law). These are just some of the wide considerations; there are considerations that are more specific as well, just to keep things unclear.

I have thoroughly studied the music section, since that was my reason for choosing this book. I have carefully looked over other areas such as film, writings, photography, art, maps, architecture, etc. The issues involved in each other category are equally interesting and confusing. I can't count the number of times I said to myself "this never would have occurred to me." The many case law examples given about which copyright claims were dismissed or upheld and for what obscure reason, are the most entertaining part of what might, otherwise, have been a dry tome.

It is important to have a good general idea of what is legal and what is not. For people who want to borrow a work for personal or very limited use this book might provide all the guidance you need. It even provides starting points for finding lists of music and other resources known to be in the public domain (and there are a LOT). If, however, you want to use a specific work that might (or might not) be in the public domain for a purpose in which you have the potential of a wider audience and of personal revenue, it is still a good idea to get legal advice.

The book is thorough, logically structured, clearly written, and well indexed. It is aimed at the nonprofessional and gives tips, points out special cases or circumstances, gray areas, examples, and resources. It is as clear and complete as any book seeking to explain the law could possibly be.

It cannot really give definitive answers or specifically state that you have permission to use a particular work for whatever your purpose might be. But what it can do (and does) is list and explain the issues and considerations so you can, at least, formulate intelligent questions and go on from there. It also made me realize something I had not considered: my postings online, this review, the content of my website, and my online photographs might also qualify as "public domain." Something more to think about....