Is this work in the public domain?

What the status means

Public domain means the work is free for anyone to use, copy, adapt, and share without permission or payment. You can remix it, sell copies, or use it in a film.

Likely protected means the copyright has not expired yet. You would need permission from the rights holder or a legal exception like fair use.

Uncertain means the year falls in a range where the answer depends on details you did not provide, such as the author's death date or formal copyright renewal.

Common mistakes

• Assuming US rules apply everywhere. A work free in the US may still be protected in the EU.
• Ignoring copyright renewal. In the US, works from 1929 to 1963 had to be renewed. Many were not, and those works entered the public domain early.
• Confusing the author's death date with the publication date. Many countries count from the author's death, not the publication year.
• Forgetting about restored copyrights. Some foreign works that had entered the US public domain were restored under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act in 1996.

Edge cases to watch

• Unpublished works often have different terms. An unpublished letter from 1940 may still be protected even though a published book from the same year is free.
• Sound recordings in the US have their own timeline. Recordings from before 1972 were protected by state law until 2067, but the Music Modernization Act changed that. Recordings from before 1923 entered the public domain on January 1, 2022.
• Corporate works use different start dates. In the US, the term is 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter.
• Government works are in the public domain in the US but not necessarily in other countries. UK government works are protected by Crown Copyright.