Public domain refers to works that belong to the public. Works in the public domain can be used free of charge and do not require written permission from the author/creator.
Works can be in the public domain for a variety of reasons. Examples: the term of the copyright has expired, the work was not eligible for copyright protection in the first place, or the copyright owner has authorized the public to use the work without permission or payment.
Effective on December 30, 2022, the copyright for a work created in Canada will usually expire 70 years following the end of the calendar year in which the creator died. However, for works where the last living author died on or before December 31, 1971, the previous copyright term (of 50 years after the end of the calendar year in which the author died) still applies. Works that already entered the public domain prior to the enactment of the copyright term extension under the Copyright Act will remain in the public domain.
Don’t assume that everything found on the internet is in the public domain just because it is publicly available. Most of the material that is found online is protected by copyright, however, it may be used for educational purposes because many uses will be covered by fair dealing or the exception for educational use of material publicly available through the Internet. For greater detail and visual representation of works entering the Public Domain, please refer to the University of Alberta's Public Domain Flowchart.
Here are some valuable public domain resources across various categories:
Project Gutenberg is a collection of over 70,000 freely downloadable e-books, mostly classic literature that has entered the public domain. Books are available in various formats, including ePub and Kindle.
Hathi (pronounced hah-tee), is the Hindi term for elephant. A large-scale collaborative repository of digitized books and journals from more than 90 academic and research institutions. Many items in HathiTrust are in the public domain and can be accessed freely.
Internet Archive A digital library offering millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more. It includes a substantial collection of public domain films and videos, as well as historical texts.
The Library of Congress Digital Collections offers a vast array of digitized resources, including historical documents, photographs, maps, manuscripts, sound recordings, films, and more. Many of these materials are in the public domain, making them freely accessible for use in research, education, and creative projects.
A platform that offers Over 6 million high-quality, free-to-use images contributed by photographers. While not all images are in the public domain, they are available under a permissive license for personal and commercial use. Learn more about Unsplash License.
A massive online repository of free-use images, sounds, and other media files. Many of these are in the public domain and can be used freely, often with attribution.
A collaborative project that provides access to a vast collection of public domain music scores and recordings, covering a wide range of classical music from various periods and composers.
This collection is a digital archive hosted by Duke University Libraries. It features over 3,000 pieces of sheet music published in the United States between 1850 and 1920, covering a wide range of genres, including popular songs, dance music, religious hymns, and patriotic tunes. Many of these works are in the public domain, making them an excellent resource for musicians, historians, and educators interested in American music history. The collection provides not only the music but also the original cover art, offering insights into the cultural and artistic context of the period.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s digital collection offers over 400,000 public domain artworks, including paintings, sculptures, and textiles, which can be downloaded and used without restriction.
Europeana is an online portal for exploring Europe’s cultural collections. It is currently collecting vast quantities of data from cultural heritage institutions across Europe about the collections of material they hold. That a work can be found on Europeana is, of course, no guarantee that it is in the public domain so additional filters must be applied in the search function.