How can you determine if content is in the public domain?

For works for hire or corporate authorship the copyright persists for 95 years from publication through the end of the 95th calendar year. This applies to all pre-1978 and post-1978 works with work for hire status. Works copyrighted to individualized authors persist for the life of all authors and 70 years following the death of the last remaining author. Once again expiring at the end of the calendar year. As of 2024, all published works from 1928 and before are in the public domain.

It is tough to determine the copyright status of a work. A general rule of thumb is that if the work was published in 1928 or before it is public domain. Otherwise the status must be checked more case by case. All works from 2003 onward are under copyright from the moment of being in a fixed medium unless otherwise stated. Many online sites list copyright status, but not all are entirely accurate. Wikimedia Commons is a very rigorous place for copyright compliance, and the works there are by and large quite accurate. There is no master list of every work that is in the public domain.

INTERSECTIONALITY OF COPYRIGHT AND TRADITIONAL AFRICAN SOCIETY 1. Many traditional stories, folk songs, proverbs, and oral traditions passed down through generations are considered part of the public domain. These cultural expressions are often collectively owned by communities and are not subject to individual copyright protection. 2. Artifacts, sculptures, pottery, and artworks created by ancient African civilizations, such as those from Ancient Egypt, Nubia, Benin, or Zimbabwe, are typically in the public domain due to their antiquity.

One of the most notable and recent examples is 1928’s Steamboat Willie. This short entered the public domain on January 1, 2024. It was part of a long legal history of copyright extension that culminated in the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act. This is how the United States landed at its 95 year term for work for hire and corporate authorship.

BASICS OF COPYRIGHT: Exclusive Rights: Copyright provides creators with exclusive rights to their work, including the right to reproduce, distribute, perform, and adapt the work. This means that no one else can use the work without the creator's permission. Originality: To be eligible for copyright protection, a work must be original, meaning it must originate from the author and possess some degree of creativity. It cannot be an exact copy of someone else's work. Tangible Form: Copyright applies to works that exist in a tangible form, whether it's a physical copy (like a book or a CD) or a digital representation (like a computer file). Ideas and concepts themselves are not copyrightable