Music: Copyright and Plagiarism: Public Domain

The Public Domain is a collection of information where intellectual property protection does not apply. When copyright expires, creative works enter the public domain. Facts and government produced documents are not eligible for copyright protection, and therefore automatically enter the public domain. Anything in the public domain may be used by anyone without permission, and without the payment of a license fee.

-Public Knowledge

With the Music Modernization Act of 2018, as of January 1, 2022, sound recordings made before 1923 are now in the public domain.  Below is a table of guidelines around when different years of sound recordings will enter the public domain.

This table is from https://www.pdinfo.com/ which is a good overview on the topic of public domain!

Copyright Duration

• By limiting the duration of a copyright, we can ensure that others are eventually able to use a work for the creation of new works.

Outside the U.S.

• Works created and published outside of the U.S. are protected under different rights.
• In general, any work created or published in a foreign country on a date that would result in it being in public domain as of January 1, 1996 is now in the public domain.

-Public Knowledge