Finding out whether something is in the public domain

You find a classic story and want to turn it into an audio drama. An online recording of it is beautifully performed, so you wonder whether you can use that too. The age of the story does not answer the recording question: a recording holds two works, the story being read and the recorded sounds themselves, and each has its own status. 7

A public-domain work is one that copyright no longer protects. A later translation, illustration, new edition or recording built on it can still be protected, but that copyright covers only the new material and does not extend the old work's term. Using the public-domain story in your drama also does not stop anyone else from making their own version of it. 13 That is your opening: work from the underlying text and make your own performance and design.

Identify the particular version

A title can refer to many different things, so answer these before anything else:

• Which edition or translation are you holding, and who made it?
• Who made the illustrations, the introduction or the notes?
• Is the file a scan of an old edition or a recent annotated one?
• Who made the recording, and when was it first published?

Check the copy for a copyright notice, the place and date of publication, the author and the publisher; for a recording, check the label, sleeve or container. 7 Read the credits and acknowledgments too: they show where material inside a larger work belongs to someone other than the name in the notice. 4

For the audio drama, the source might be an original-language edition whose copyright has expired, while a modern translation on the same website is still protected. The date in a new edition's notice does not tell you when every part of it expires; some material may already be free and the new parts may not be. Compare editions to see which is which. 7

Duration depends on more than age

The U.S. term depends on when the work was created and published, who made it, and the law in force at the time. 2 Find the rule that matches your work:

• Published in the United States before January 1, 1931: in the public domain in the U.S. 2 Every copyright term runs to the end of its calendar year, so each January 1 another year of works joins. 2
• Published 1931–1963: the copyright had to be renewed in its 28th year. If it was renewed, it lasts 95 years from the end of the year it began; if not, it expired at the end of the 28th year. 27
• Published 1964–1977: renewal was automatic, so the term is 95 years. 2
• Published before 1978 without a copyright notice: generally not protected. For works published from 1978 to February 28, 1989, a missing notice could be cured by registering within five years and adding the notice to later copies; for works published on or after March 1, 1989, a missing notice tells you nothing. 7
• Created on or after January 1, 1978: the author's life plus 70 years; for a joint work, 70 years after the last surviving author dies; for a work made for hire or an anonymous or pseudonymous work, 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever ends first. Works created before 1978 but never published or registered get the same terms, and none of them expired before December 31, 2002. 2
• Foreign works: some foreign works that lost U.S. protection, for example by not being renewed, had their copyright restored automatically on January 1, 1996. 23 Apart from these foreign-work exceptions, a work that has entered the public domain stays there. 7

Sound recordings fixed before February 15, 1972 follow their own federal rule. Protection for recordings first published before 1923 ended on December 31, 2021. Those published 1923–1946 are protected through December 31 of the year 100 years after publication, those published 1947–1956 for 110 years, and all other pre-1972 recordings until February 15, 2067. 6 So a story first published in 1925 is free in the U.S., while a 1960s recording of someone reading it stays protected until February 15, 2067. 26

If you want a pre-1972 recording for a noncommercial use, the statute gives you one route. Search the Copyright Office's filed schedules and the major sale and streaming services for it. If you do not find it, file a notice with the Copyright Office naming the recording and your use. If the rights owner does not opt out within 90 days after your notice is indexed, the use does not violate the rule. 6

Search the records

Check the dates and any renewal in the Copyright Office's own records:

1. Search online. The Copyright Public Records System covers 1898–1945 and 1978 to the present; the Virtual Card Catalog covers 1870–1977; the Catalog of Copyright Entries covers 1891–1978. 8
2. For a work published 1931–1963, look for the renewal registration made in its 28th year. 7
3. If you cannot settle it yourself, ask the Copyright Office to search for you. It charges by the hour, sends a written report, and gives you a paid estimate first if you ask; the current rates are on its fee page. 79

Read the results with care. The Office keeps no list of public-domain works, does not list stories or articles published inside magazines and collections separately, and will not tell you what its findings mean legally. Finding nothing about a work in the records does not mean it is unprotected. 7

Government material deserves a closer look too

U.S. copyright does not protect any work of the U.S. Government, meaning a work prepared by a federal officer or employee as part of official duties. 3 Not everything on a federal website is such a work. A contractor's report, a photograph licensed from an outside photographer, or a state or city document falls outside that definition, and the federal government can own copyrights that were transferred to it. 3

Read the credit and rights statement on the item itself before you copy it. A trustworthy website can show you a work without the right to let you reuse it.

Uncertainty is not another name for public domain

A missing copyright symbol, an owner you cannot find, or a book that is out of print does not end a copyright. For works published on or after March 1, 1989, a missing notice does not mean you can use the work freely, and ownership can have changed hands since the notice was printed. 4 Copyright ends when its term runs out or, for older works, when a required notice or renewal was missed; nothing in the term rules ends a copyright early because the owner is hard to trace or the work is out of print. 27 When the status stays unclear, treat the work as protected and ask for permission (see Asking for permission).

A CC0 dedication is a different route. The person applying it gives up their copyright and related rights as far as the law allows, with a fallback license where it does not. It does not waive trademark or patent rights, and it does not clear other people's rights in the work, such as the publicity or privacy rights of someone pictured. 5 Check that the person applying CC0 owned the work, and clear anything else in it yourself (see Creative Commons without the guesswork).

Keep a short record of each public-domain conclusion: the edition you used, the dates you found, where you found them (including any search results), and the rule you relied on. If anyone questions your use later, that page is your answer.

Then make your edition, performance, commentary or adaptation, and keep your own new material clearly separate from the work that belongs to everyone.