With this big hubbub over Desktop Nexus, I have noticed that people do not really know what Public Domain is all about. I have spent a couple hours gathering some facts about what public domain is and I will share my findings in this article that I typed up.
________________________________________ ________________________________

What is Public Domain?
According to dictionary.com, Public Domain is:
1. the status of a literary work or an invention whose copyright or patent has expired or that never had such protection.
2. land owned by the government.

According to Wikipedia.org, Public domain is: a range of abstract materials—commonly referred to as intellectual property—which are not owned or controlled by anyone.
A couple facts about Public Domain:
1. “Under modern law, most original works of art, literature, music, etc. are covered by copyright from the time of their creation for a limited period of time (which varies by country). When the copyright expires, the work enters the public domain. It is estimated that currently, of all the books found in the world's libraries, only about 15% are in the public domain, even though only 10% of all books are still in print; the remaining 75% are books which remain unavailable because they are still under copyright protection.(1) ”
“Under current law, copyright extends for the life of the author plus 70 years; in the case of pseudonymous or anonymous works or works made for hire, copyright extends for 95 years from the year of first publication or 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first.(2) ”
For a handy dandy chart to figure out copyright term and public domain in the United States go to [link]
To figure out if something is public domain go to [link] or [link]

To find out more about public domain do a generalize search in any search engine.
I hope that this small article has made you more knowledgeable.

------
(1)[link]
(2)[link]



I'm out....Kat