Copyright Services: Copyright Term and the Public Domain

When an idea is expressed in a fixed medium, whether it be a painting, a story, a dance choreography, or a poem on the back of a napkin (though certainly not limited to those categories), it has legal copyright protections for a set period of time, allowing the creator to use or exploit the fruit of their work as they see fit, or not at all. In the past, this copyright required some formality in the way of registration or notice, but that is no longer the case for new works.

Once that period of time expires, or if the creator failed to comply with any legal formalities required at the time of creation or thereafter, the work enters the public domain - meaning it belongs to everyone, without restriction. The creator may also decide before the expiration of copyright to dedicate the work to the public domain, giving that new creation to the public to use.

There are some expressions, including facts, local laws, or works of the US Government (to name a few), which are excluded from copyright protections. These are born directly into the public domain, free to copy, reuse, adapt or distribute.

While a copy of a public domain work gains no new copyright, a curated selection of public domain works may have a new copyright, protecting, for example, the order of appearance of those works (e.g. A collection of public domain postcards may have protection over the order and placement of these images).

Determining what is or isn't in the public domain can be a complicated and lengthy process. However, the chart below is provided to help guide you through some of the labyrinthine rules of US copyright.

Additional Resources

Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States

Never Published, Never Registered Works 2

Works Registered or First Published in the U.S.

Works First Published Outside the U.S. by Foreign Nationals or U.S. Citizens Living Abroad 9

Works Published Abroad Before 1978 10

Works Published Abroad After 1 January 1978

Special Cases

Sound recordings

(Note: The following information applies only to the sound recording itself, and not to any copyrights in underlying compositions or texts.)

Unpublished Sound Recordings, Domestic and Foreign

Sound Recordings Published in the United States

Sound Recordings Published Outside the United States

Special Cases

Architectural Works 16

(Note: Architectural plans and drawings may also be protected as textual/graphics works)

Editorial Note:

1 January 2019 marked two important changes to the copyright duration chart. First, for the first time in 20 years, published works entered the public domain. 1923 had finally arrived, and the cut-off date for the public domain started to shift. Second, the enactment of the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act in 2018 radically changed the calculus for pre-1972 published sound recordings. Both of these changes are reflected in the chart.

Notes

1. This chart was first published in Peter B. Hirtle, "Recent Changes To The Copyright Law: Copyright Term Extension," Archival Outlook, January/February 1999. This version is current as of 1 January 2024. The most recent version is found at the Cornell University Library's Copyright Services page "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States." For some explanation on how to use the chart and complications hidden in it, see Peter B. Hirtle, "When is 1923 Going to Arrive and Other Complications of the U.S. Public Domain," Searcher (Sept 2012). The chart is based in part on Laura N. Gasaway's chart, "When Works Pass Into the Public Domain." A similar chart is found in Marie C. Malaro, A Legal Primer On Managing Museum Collections, 3rd ed. (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2012): 170. Mary Minow has a useful copyright duration chart organized by year. A "flow chart" for copyright duration and a “tree-view” chart on copyright are also available. Several U.S. copyright duration calculators are available online, including the Public Domain Sherpa and the Durationator (in beta). See also Library of Congress Copyright Office. Circular 15a, Duration of Copyright: Provisions of the Law Dealing with the Length of Copyright Protection. Further information on copyright duration is found in Chapter 3, "Duration and Ownership of Copyright," in Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, by Peter B. Hirtle, Emily Hudson, and Andrew T. Kenyon (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Library, 2009) available as a free download from Cornell eCommons. Additional guidance on the public domain may be found in Melissa Levine, Richard C. Adler,and Justin Bonfiglio. Finding the Public Domain: Copyright Review Management System Toolkit (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Michigan Publishing, 13 June 2016) and Menesha A. Mannapperuma, Brianna L. Schofield, and Andrea K. Yankovsky, et. al.Is it in the Public Domain? (Berkeley, CA: Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, 27 May 2014).
2. Treat unpublished works registered for copyright prior to 1978 as if they had been published in the US (though note that the only formality that applied was the requirement to renew copyright after 28 years).
3. All terms of copyright run through the end of the calendar year in which they would otherwise expire, so a work enters the public domain on the first of the year following the expiration of its copyright term. For example, a book published on 15 March 1925 entered the public domain on 1 January 2021, not 16 March 2020 (1925+95=2020).
4. Unpublished works when the death date of the author is not known may still be copyrighted after 120 years, but certification from the Copyright Office that it has no record to indicate whether the person is living or died less than 70 years before is a complete defense to any action for infringement. See 17 U.S.C. § 302(e).
5. Presumption as to the author's death requires a certified report from the Copyright Office that its records disclose nothing to indicate that the author of the work is living or died less than seventy years before.
6. "Publication" was not explicitly defined in the Copyright Law before 1976, but the 1909 Act indirectly indicated that publication was when copies of the first authorized edition were placed on sale, sold, or publicly distributed by the proprietor of the copyright or under his authority.
7. Not all published works are copyrighted. Works prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties receive no copyright protection in the US. For much of the twentieth century, certain formalities had to be followed to secure copyright protection. For example, some books had to be printed in the United States to receive copyright protection, and failure to deposit copies of works with the Register of Copyright could result in the loss of copyright. The requirements that copies include a formal notice of copyright and that the copyright be renewed after twenty eight years were the most common conditions, and are specified in the chart.
8. A 1961 Copyright Office study found that fewer than 15% of all registered copyrights were renewed. For books, the figure was even lower: 7%. See Barbara Ringer, "Study No. 31: Renewal of Copyright" (1960), reprinted in Library of Congress Copyright Office. Copyright law revision: Studies prepared for the Subcommittee on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-sixth Congress, first [-second] session. (Washington: U. S. Govt. Print. Off, 1961), p. 220. A good guide to investigating the copyright and renewal status of published work is Samuel Demas and Jennie L. Brogdon, "Determining Copyright Status for Preservation and Access: Defining Reasonable Effort," Library Resources and Technical Services 41:4 (October, 1997): 323-334. See also Library of Congress Copyright Office, How to investigate the copyright status of a work. Circular 22. The Online Books Page FAQ, especially "How Can I Tell Whether a Book Can Go Online?" and "How Can I Tell Whether a Copyright Was Renewed?", is also very helpful.
9. The following section on foreign publications draws extensively on Stephen Fishman, The Public Domain: How to Find Copyright-free Writings, Music, Art & More. (Berkeley: Nolo.com, 2019). It applies to works first published abroad and not subsequently published in the US within 30 days of the original foreign publication. Works that were simultaneously published abroad and in the US are treated as if they are American publications.
10. Foreign works published after 1928 are likely to be still under copyright in the US because of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) modifying the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The URAA restored copyright in foreign works that as of 1 January 1996 had fallen into the public domain in the United States because of a failure to comply with US formalities. One of the authors of the work had to be a non-U.S. citizen or resident, the work could not have been published in the United States within 30 days after its publication abroad, and the work needed to still be in copyright in the country of publication. Such works have a copyright term equivalent to that of an American work that had followed all of the formalities. For more information, see Library of Congress Copyright Office, Highlights of Copyright Amendments Contained in the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA). Circular 38b.
11. U.S. formalities include the requirement that a formal notice of copyright be included in the work; registration, renewal, and deposit of copies in the Copyright Office; and the manufacture of the work in the United States.
12. The differing dates is a product of the question of controversial Twin Books v. Walt Disney Co. decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in 1996. The question at issue is the copyright status of a work only published in a foreign language outside of the United States and without a copyright notice. It had long been assumed that failure to comply with U.S. formalities placed these works in the public domain in the United States and, as such, were subject to copyright restoration under URAA (see note 10). The court in Twin Books, however, concluded "publication without a copyright notice in a foreign country did not put the work in the public domain in the United States." According to the court, these foreign publications were in effect "unpublished" in the United States, and hence have the same copyright term as unpublished works. The decision has been harshly criticized in Nimmer on Copyright, the leading treatise on copyright, as being incompatible with previous decisions and the intent of Congress when it restored foreign copyrights. The Copyright Office as well ignores the Twin Books decision in its circular on restored copyrights. Nevertheless, the decision is currently applicable in all of the 9th Judicial Circuit (Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), and it may apply in the rest of the country.
13. See Library of Congress Copyright Office, International Copyright Relations of the United States. Circular 38a.
14. See 63 Fed. Reg.19,287 (1998), Library of Congress Copyright Office, Copyright Restoration of Works in Accordance With the Uruguay Round Agreements Act; List Identifying Copyrights Restored Under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act for Which Notices of Intent To Enforce Restored Copyrights Were Filed in the Copyright Office.
15. Copyright notice requirements for sound recordings are discussed in the Copyright Notice. Circular 3.
16. Architectural works are defined as "the design of a building as embodied in any tangible medium of expression, including a building, architectural plans, or drawings. The work includes the overall form as well as the arrangement and composition of spaces and elements in the design, but does not include individual standard features." Architectural works were expressly included in copyright by Title VII of Pub. L. 101-650.
17. What constitutes "publication" of a building is a very interesting question. Copyright Office regulations stipulate that "Publication of an architectural work occurs when underlying plans or drawings of the building or other copies of the building design are distributed or made available to the general public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. Construction of a building does not itself constitute publication for purposes of registration, unless multiple copies are constructed." 37 C.F.R. § 202.11(c)(2)
18. If the source country's first adhered to either the Berne Treaty or the WTO after 1 January 1996, then the relevant date is the earliest date of membership. Date of membership is tracked on Wikipedia: List of Parties to International Copyright Agreements.
19. Contractors and grantees are not considered government employees. Generally they create works with copyright (though the government may own that copyright). See CENDI Frequently asked Questions about Copyright: Issues Affecting the U.S. Government. The public domain status of U.S. government works applies only in the United States.
20. Thanks to Dr. Paul Goldsman and Tony Greenman for noting that the chart lacked information for foreign works created before 1978 and first published between 1978 and 2003.

© 2004-2024 Peter B. Hirtle. Last updated 27 March, 2024. Use of this chart is governed by the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Comments and corrections are welcome, and may be sent to copyright@cornell.edu. Thanks to all those who have suggested improvements. Special thanks to Matthew Kopel for maintaining this document.