When Copyright Ends (or Never Was): Understanding the Public Domain

Abstract

Presentation given as part of Lyrasis copyright education series for cultural heritage institutions. Learning objectives—Students will be able to: • Identify relevant facts and law to asses when copyright protection begins • Identify whether a given work is or is not encumbered by copyright • Apply basic rules and standards for copyright eligibility to examples based on real-world situations • Apply basic rules to measure the duration of copyright, including the important threshold question of whether a work has been published • Distinguish between types of works that are eligible for copyright protection and those that are not (i.e., born public domain)