The Public Domain: Find and Use Free Content for Your Website, Book, App, Music, Video, Art, and More

Find free content and save on permission fees

Millions of creative works—books, artwork, photos, songs, movies, and more—are available copyright-free in the public domain. Frozen for decades due to lengthened copyright terms, the public domain has finally begun to grow again as copyrights for older works expire. Since 2019, classics such as The Great Gatsby, Sherlock Holmes, and early Alfred Hitchcock films have all entered the U.S. public domain.

The only book that helps you find and identify which creative works are protected by copyright and which are not, The Public Domain covers the rules for:

•  writings

•  music

•  art

•  photography

•  architecture

•  maps

•  choreography

•  movies

•  video

•  software

•  databases

•  collections

The 10th edition is completely updated to include new public domain resources and the latest legal changes to copyright protection of songs, books, photos, and other creative works, as well as public domain rules outside the U.S. It also covers when works created with artificial intelligence (AI) are in the public domain.

Stephen Fishman has dedicated his career as an attorney and author to writing useful, authoritative, and recognized guides on business, taxation, and intellectual property matters for small businesses, entrepreneurs, independent contractors, and freelancers. He is the author of 20 books and hundreds of articles, and has been quoted in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, and many other publications. Among his books are Every Landlord’s Tax Deduction Guide, Deduct It! Lower Your Small Business Taxes, and Working for Yourself: Law & Taxes for Independent Contractors, Freelancers & Gig Workers of All Types, published by Nolo. He is a two-time recipient of the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Benjamin Franklin Award.