Public domain

The public domain (PD) consists of all the <a href="/facts/Creative_work/Ys4P55s6">creative work</a> to which no <a href="/facts/Exclusive_right/vxvt8PGT">exclusive</a> <a href="/facts/Intellectual_property/PqHW9mVP">intellectual property</a> rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly <a href="/facts/Waiver/cfAFLmcW">waived</a>, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds the exclusive rights, anyone can legally use or reference those works without permission. 
As examples, the works of <a href="/facts/William_Shakespeare/ohI96JTv">William Shakespeare</a>, <a href="/facts/Ludwig_van_Beethoven/eusBgBkA">Ludwig van Beethoven</a>, <a href="/facts/Miguel_de_Cervantes/Whcrx6FI">Miguel de Cervantes</a>, <a href="/facts/Zoroaster/o4RAWuMX">Zoroaster</a>, <a href="/facts/Lao_Zi/H5PsnoQG">Lao Zi</a>, <a href="/facts/Confucius/HrrVtjJp">Confucius</a>, <a href="/facts/Aristotle/U2bDlBFW">Aristotle</a>, <a href="/facts/L._Frank_Baum/AzdkgcbU">L. Frank Baum</a>, <a href="/facts/Leonardo_da_Vinci/E83tcPl2">Leonardo da Vinci</a> and <a href="/facts/Georges_M%25C3%25A9li%25C3%25A8s/u7ruLUhs">Georges Méliès</a> are in the public domain either by virtue of their having been created before <a href="/facts/Copyright/7GHEWEx9">copyright</a> existed, or by their copyright term having expired. Some works are not covered by a country's copyright laws, and are therefore in the public domain; for example, in the United States, items excluded from copyright include the formulae of <a href="/facts/Classical_mechanics/ykG8upsN">Newtonian physics</a> and cooking recipes. Other works are actively dedicated by their authors to the public domain (see <a href="/facts/Waiver/cfAFLmcW">waiver</a>); examples include reference implementations of cryptographic algorithms. The term public domain is not normally applied to situations where the creator of a work retains residual rights, in which case use of the work is referred to as "under license" or "with permission".
As rights vary by country and jurisdiction, a work may be subject to rights in one country and be in the public domain in another. Some rights depend on registrations on a country-by-country basis, and the absence of registration in a particular country, if required, gives rise to public-domain status for a work in that country. The term public domain may also be interchangeably used with other imprecise or undefined terms such as the <a href="/facts/Public_sphere/nxQL43at">public sphere</a> or <a href="/facts/Commons/JCExgD1q">commons</a>, including concepts such as the "commons of the mind", the "intellectual commons", and the "information commons".

Public domain open-in-new

Public domain