Public Domain

The public domain is the body of creative and intellectual work that nobody owns, because its copyright has expired, was never claimed, or never applied. Anyone may copy, sell, translate, adapt, or remix it without permission or payment. Shakespeare's plays, Beethoven's symphonies, and the fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm are all in the public domain, which is why there are countless editions and adaptations of them.

Copyright was designed as a temporary monopoly, granted to encourage creation, after which works would pass to the public. The first copyright law, Britain's Statute of Anne (1710), gave authors 14 years, renewable once. The United States copied this in 1790. Terms then grew repeatedly:

• 1909. Up to 56 years in the United States, with renewal.
• 1976. The author's life plus 50 years.
• 1998. The Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act added 20 more years: life plus 70, or 95 years for corporate works.

The 1998 law was nicknamed the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because Disney lobbied for it as its earliest Mickey Mouse films approached expiry; critics saw it as Rent-Seeking by rights holders at public expense. Because the extension applied retroactively, almost no published works entered the American public domain from 1999 until 2019. The Supreme Court upheld the law in Eldred v. Ashcroft (2003). Since 2019, a new year of works has entered every January 1, celebrated as Public Domain Day; the 1928 version of Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie entered in 2024.

Supporters of shorter terms make several arguments. Culture builds on earlier work, and Disney's own films drew heavily on public-domain stories. Most works stop earning money within a few years, yet long terms keep them locked up. Many become orphan works, whose owners can't be found, so libraries and archives can't legally copy or restore them even as the originals decay; see Game Preservation. Early films, recordings, and software are especially at risk.

Unlike a field or a fishery, the public domain can't be overused, because copying a book doesn't use it up; see Tragedy of the Commons. Its problem is the reverse: works that could be shared freely are kept out. Volunteer projects such as Project Gutenberg, founded in 1971, and Wikipedia make public-domain texts and images widely available; see Commons-Based Peer Production and Wiki.

Creators can also place their own work in or near the public domain by dedicating it or by using open licenses. Some licenses go further and require that adaptations stay open too, the principle of Copyleft.

Similar debates surround patents, software that can't legally be repaired, and old games that can no longer be bought; see Right to Repair and Emulation.