If you have any questions, or if you would like more information, please contact:
Ellen Phillips - Director, Open Educational Resources & Intellectual Property, e.phillips@snhu.edu (603.652.1900)
All original content in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 This link opens in a new window International License. 3rd-party content including, but not limited to images and linked items, are subject to their own license terms.
A work typically enters the Public Domain when its term of copyright expires. Determining whether or not a work is in the Public Domain can be complicated, however, as the term of copyright often differs depending on a work’s authorship, format, date of publication, and country of origin. The term "public domain" encompasses materials for which:
Works by American creators that were published in the US prior to 1928 should be in the public domain (as of January 1, 2023)
References
Stim, Rich. “Welcome to the Public Domain.” Copyright and Fair Use, Stanford University Libraries, fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/public-domain/welcome/.