Creative Commons Licenses

Public domain is the name given to works for which no copyright exists. Works can get into the public domain in several ways:

• the copyright has expired 
• copyright owner failed to renew copyright properly
• copyright never existed for the works: laws & legislation, many government documents, etc.
• the copyright owner puts the work in the public domain deliberately (see the CC 0 public domain dedication)

It is important to know, or be able to figure out, which works are in the public domain if you want to reuse, adapt, remix or otherwise make derivatives of those works. This inspires creativity and promotes "the Progress of. Science and useful Arts" which is a stated goal of copyright. Start by viewing the chart "Copyright Term and the Public Domain" from Cornell University Library. The following sites are places to find public domain works.

• The OpenVerse (do a search then limit results to items with the public domain mark or CC 0 dedication)
• New York Public Library Public Domain Collections
• Free Music Archive
• Pexels for public domain stock photos
• Unsplash is a stock photo collection that is *nearly* public domain (read about the Unsplash license)

Digital collections from U.S. government agencies such as the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian libraries, as well as works in the Digital Public Library of America, contain public domain works as well as works that are still in copyright. Read rights statements on individual items uncovered in searches of these sites to determine copyright status.

Creative Commons maintains two special public domain tools.

	The public domain tool, also known as CC 0 (CC-zero) indicates "no rights reserved." Creators can use this tool to freely give the content to the public domain; creators have waived all  copyright on materials with this designation.
	The public domain mark can be used on works that you know are free of known copyright restrictions. Use this mark cautiously as materials may still have copyrights in other jurisdictions.