| IMD |
| Page: Definition Public Domain |
Public Domain:
This term has nothing to do with domains as in website addresses. Public Domain means that a piece of copy or software doesn’t fall under the protection of the copyright law and therefore can be used by everyone. This can come about in several ways:
The author or programmer didn’t claim his copyright in the first place
The copyright expired. In the US this would be true for all written works published before 1923 or 70 years after the death of the author
in the US documents issued by the government (that is, created or prepared by an employee or officer of the government) are generally not under any copyright but Public Domain
Internet marketers can pick any Public Domain text and use it as content on their website or even sell it as their own book or report. This can be a very profitable enterprise. But it sounds easier than it is. The two main problems are the research to actually find a worthwhile text for which a demand exists or can be created and an often extensive copyright research to make absolutely sure the text really is Public Domain. Especially the latter can develop into a quite expensive task if you have to hire a lawyer for it. And this might prove necessary in the majority of cases as the laws in this area are quite complicated and errors in the direction of breaking a copyright might turn out as a very costly mistake.
To cover this problems there are membership sites which provide their members with all the research already completed.
[Public comes from Latin publicus = pertaining to the people; populus = people;
Domain goes back to Latin dominium = (a lord’s or master’s) property; domus = house]|
Recommended
Resources: Sites with Public Domain content:
|
