How To Find Public Domain Works
The Slow Free Way To Find Public Domain Works
You can perform a search of the copyright records yourself. The process is time-consuming, cumbersome, and sometimes inconclusive (however, even paid searches can prove inconclusive). But if you have the patience to sift through massive amounts of data, you can save yourself the search fees you would otherwise pay to the Copyright Office or a private company.
Before you begin your search, be sure you know the title of the work, the name of the author (or authors) and/or any pseudonyms they may have used, the year of publication or creation, and any other information that may help identify the work—number of pages, type of binding, whether it was part of a series. The more information you have regarding a work, the more likely you will be able to verify whether it is in the public domain.
You can make a simple check to determine whether the copyright of a work was renewed by searching for an edition published more than 28 years after the original copyright date and looking for a renewal notice in that later edition. This method is only useful for confirming renewal; it is not a reliable conclusion for the absence of one.
To perform a thorough search, a good place to start is the Copyright Office’s online records (www.copyright.gov/records/). All copyright and renewal records from 1978 on have been digitized and catalogued in searchable format, and they are beginning to do the same with earlier records (you can find online information about some pre-1978 records at the University of Pennsylvania’s online records page (onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce/). However, keep in mind that these results are not always conclusive, even if you find no record of the work you’re searching for.
For works created before 1978, you must search the print and/or microfilm copyright records available at the Library of Congress and other major libraries around the country, among them many Federal Depository
Libraries. Also, the following libraries possess a reasonably full set of records: the University of Chicago library, the University of California, Los Angeles, the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh, and the Free Library of Philadelphia. Check with a library near you to find out whether they have access to records—your local branch may be able to locate the nearest library carrying physical records of copyrights and renewals.
When searching for a copyright renewal, you should look through records for the years that fall 27, 28, and 29 years after the work’s original publication date. (Remember, works published between 1923 and 1978 had to have their copyrights renewed for a second term in order to remain out of the public domain.) The records are divided into two sections for each year: January to June, and July to December. You should search both sections for all three years, regardless of the copyright date listed on the work.
Another free method that may yield results is to write to the author, his or her agent or estate, or the last known publisher of the work and ask directly whether the copyright was renewed. You can often find this information on the copyright page of the book or work, or in the author’s acknowledgements if there are any. You may not be able to get in touch with any of these parties, and if you do they may not be interested in
cooperating, but it’s worth a shot. Several people have found success with this method, and the results are at least conclusive.
HELPFUL HINT: There are thousands of works already proven to be in the public domain you can choose from, for which you will not have to perform any copyright search at all. Check out the resource section in the back of the book for links to sites listing and cataloguing known public domain works.