Public domain materials can be a great source of material, if used correctly.
The term “public domain” refers to documents that are no longer (if they were ever)
protected by copyright. Sometimes they lack copyright because of their date or because
of a past failure to renew. In other cases, they have intentionally been left without
copyright or were created by an entity (like the U.S. federal government) who, by law,
does not maintain a copyright on its output.
Many people wrongly believe that materials that still enjoy protection are in the
public domain. You need only to revisit the portion of this ebook related to the terms of
copyrights and their length to understand why! There is a great deal of confusion,
especially surrounding works created prior to 1978.
Thus, before one relies upon public domain material, they must make sure the
content in question really is in the public domain.
The University of North Carolina supplies a handy chart to assist in that
determination. It can be found here:
www.unc.edu~unclngpublic-d.htm
The following sites claim to offer materials that are in the public domain. One
should undertake necessary due diligence, however, before using any of the materials.
promo.netpgindex.html
the-tech.mit.eduShakespeareworks.html
www.bartleby.com/
digital.library.upenn.edubooks
www.ccel.org/
www.recmusic.org/lieder/
www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/aesop/
people.redhat.comjohnsonmbooks.html
www.hti.umich.edu/p/pd-modeng/
www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/jargon.html
http:library.byu.edu~rdheurodocs
Project Gutenberg may also be a great source for public domain materials:
www.gutenberg.orgwikiMain_Page
ABOUT THE AUTHORBill Hadley is a professional journalist who specializes in copyright law; he is the author of the book, "
Online Copyright Manual for Everyone!"
