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 are available copyright-free in the public domain. Every year, more classic works enter the public domain as their copyrights expire. In 2026 alone, the book The Maltese Falcon, the character Betty Boop, the Marx Brothers movie Animal Crackers, and the song Georgia on My Mind entered the public domain.

The Public Domain helps you identify works that are not covered by copyright and explains how you can copy and adapt those works in your projects. It covers the rules for:

• written works
• music
• art
• photography
• video
• and more.

The 11th edition is completely updated to include new public domain resources and the latest legal changes to copyright protection, including for AI-generated works.

Glen Secor is a Legal Editor at Nolo. Before joining Nolo, Glen was a business and intellectual property attorney in corporations and in private practice. He is the author of Trademark: Legal Care for Your Brand, Nolo’s LLC Handbook and Tax Savvy for Small Business.