What are Public Domain resources?

• Works which are not owned by someone and therefore not protected by copyright  
  
  

How does a work become part of the Public Domain?

• It was created before copyright laws (example: the Mona Lisa)
• Its copyright protection has expired (example: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)
• It never had copyright protection or its copyright was lost because of changes in copyright law
• It was dedicated to the public domain

What work is always in the Public Domain?

• Work created by employees of the federal government as a part of their job is in the public domain except for works created under contract by non-governmental entities
• Reprints of works in the public domain (but a license may restrict use.)
• Ideas, facts, and common property (i.e., calendars and phone books)
• Federal laws and court decisions
• Words, names, slogans and phrases
• Most blank forms
• Recipes, discoveries, procedures, and systems (but not the words that describe them.)