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Are Public Domain Documents Copyrighted?

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

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