Overview & Resources
Works in the public domain have no copyright and can be used freely. They include works in which the copyright period has expired, such as most works published in the U.S. before 1924, or works which never had copyright protection, such as many materials published by the U.S. federal government, or works elected to be placed in the public domain through a Creative Commons license. Below is a list of Public Domain resources.
- Copyright Terms and the Public Domain in the United StatesThis shows a detailed chart showing copyright term lengths.
- Project Guttenburg-Public Domain pdf booksProject Gutenberg is a library of over 60,000 free eBooks.
- Public Domain AudiobooksLibriVox
- Public Domain Explained by Stanford University LibrariesWelcome to the Public Domain
New Public Domain Resource
Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety.
Chronicling America provides access to U.S. newspapers published from 1789-1963.
- Chronicling AmericaSearch America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963 or use the U.S. Newspaper Directory to find information about American newspapers published between 1690-present. Chronicling America is sponsored jointly by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Library of Congress.
