.: The Public Domain: Ten Things You May Not Know About It
By:Avril Harper
Category:Home / Internet / Domain Names
There's a little known world of free-to-claim products with unlimited profit potential, an Aladdin’s Cave of ready-made products for you to locate in minutes, re-package in hours, and sell as your own. It’s called ‘The Public Domain’ and it means you can legally copy and sell other people’s books, maps, films, and more, with no ongoing fees or royalties of any kind to pay … EVER! Here are ten more things you may not know about the public domain …..
* The public domain describes books and other creative works, such as photographs and maps, whose copyrights have expired, perhaps never existed at all, and no one has a better claim on those products than you. There are millions of public domain works that anyone can copy and sell, add their own name as author, and even copyright and stop others from selling similar items.
* Changes made to a public domain product, sufficient to make it a copyrightable product, describes it as a ‘Derivative’ work. Let's say you buy an old book about witchcraft, published in the USA before 1923, so definitely in the public domain. If you publish it 'as is' it's still in the public domain, although arguably a few minor changes to font or pagination, length of paragraphs will render it copyright protected. But tiny changes are insufficient to guarantee your new book is copyright protected. But change the title, add a few paragraphs of your own, include pictures of places witches were thought to exist, update spellings, remove dated terminology, and the book is now copyright protected and termed a 'derivative' work.
* A foreign translation of a public domain work is a derivative work and carries sufficient creativity to allow it full protection of copyright law.
* The public domain is not to be confused with reproduction or manufacturing rights. Reproduction and manufacturing rights, where, for example, someone gives you a master copy of their book or product with rights to reproduce that item does not mean their copyright is defunct or never existed. Reproduction and manufacturing rights are a concession, usually passed by the product owner, allowing others to reproduce his work, but rarely does copyright also pass to the recipient. Public domain rights last indefinitely; reproduction rights can be time limited or otherwise withdrawn or restricted.
* Public domain items can typically be amended by anyone, changed, reshaped at will, and copyright belongs to no one. Not so reproduction and marketing rights where the original creator invariably retains copyright and rarely allows others to alter his work.
* Just because you own the original work, such as a painting or original final draft of a book or piece of music, does not necessarily mean you also own copyright in the item. Nor does it always mean you can make and sell copies of your original product. Recently, on television, an artist explained that he had sold an original painting from which he earned large sums from limited edition signed prints. Asked why he sold the painting and, by implication the reprint rights, he insisted he had only sold the painting, not his intellectual copyright in the item. Someone else has the painting, he has the copyright and subsequent reprint copy marketing rights. His claims were verified by the programme’s legal team.
* Public domain is not the same thing as out of print. Out of print simply means the publisher has ceased creating new copies of a book or other item even though the item may still be fully protected by copyright law.
* Some sites hosting public domain products allow their materials to be downloaded and read, but ban subsequent printing or copying. Play safe, don’t assume no one will know if you copy their content. Many public domain works are edited or revised prior to upload and can easily be identified in later editions. Some sites insist you pay a royalty on money you make on items they have sourced from the public domain. Read the rules very carefully and do nothing until you are certain of your legal standing. The best way to stay safe is to download from sites without copying restrictions or obtain and copy a physical version of a product you’re sure is a first edition and in the public domain. But see the next tip to avoid a very common mistake.
* Under certain conditions creative works on which copyright was not renewed at an appropriate time or which did not include a copyright notice are deemed to be in the public domain. So say you buy a book at auction, it has no copyright notice, does that put it in the public domain? Probably. But be careful; it could be a page containing the copyright notice has been removed from the book, and it is still covered by copyright law. Books with reliable consecutive page numbering with no break in the sequence – such as 1, 2, 3, 4 - can usually be trusted, unlike another with pages numbered i, ii, iv. What became of page iii, did it ever exist, has it been removed, was it a copyright page, or did it contain something else, perhaps it was blank!
* Cut the risk and choose from items known to be definitely in the public domain:
- Currently all items published in the USA before 1923 are in the public domain, meaning they can be virtually copied at will.
- Work first published in the USA between 1923 and 1963 where their copyright was not renewed in their 28th year are in the public domain.
- Work first published in the USA after January 1st 1978 retains copyright for the life of the author and seventy years thereafter, bearing close similarity to UK laws, see later paragraph.
- Work first published in the USA between 1978 and March 1st, 1989, without copyright notice AND without registration, is in the public domain.
- In the UK copyright typically extends to 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the creator died (not the same as 70 years since the creator’s death), with some other restrictions as explained concisely in 'Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook' available from all main reference libraries. The book also covers other world copyright issues.
- Works published before copyright laws existed are in the public domain.
- Works dedicated so by the creator belong to the public domain. A writer or other creator can dedicate his work to the public domain, thereby relinquishing ownership and allowing anyone to use the work, even change it, or sell copies.
Article keywords: public domain, public domain song, copyright free, public domain book
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Avril Harper is webmaster of www.public-domain.biz. She has produced a free guide to the public domain which you can download with other freely distributable reports and ebooks at www.toppco.com
.: New Domain Names Articles
1). How Do I Change My Domain Name
The fact is that there really are some times that you need to change your domain name. Changing domain names is not in fact a rare situation, but is widely common today. Many people are changing domain names for all kinds of reasons, and along with that, many people are also encountering problems.
2). Warning! Your Website Domain Can Be Taken
Your domain name can get hijacked and a price quoted back to you on how much it will cost to get it back. There is some easy measures that will stop this.
3). International Domain Names with Internet Explorer 7
IDN stands for Internationalized Domain Name, also known as multilingual domain names. It allows you the possibility to use more characters in domains names, besides letters and numbers. It uses characters available in other alphabets and other languages.
4). Name Your Business Not to Dos
Whether you are naming your baby or your new business you can make a powerful positive impact if you do it correctly
5). You Need Your Own Domain Name...
A unique domain name. That's one of the first and most important steps that a new home business website builders must consider. All too often, you see websites created with a free host with a domain name that includes the free host company's business name. If you are planning to market your website and internet business as a professional entity, then you really should buy your own domain name.
6). Make Profit from Buying and Selling Domain Names
The Internet domain market has become more and more lucrative in the past few years. Almost all companies as well as many individual people these days have websites, and most would prefer their websites to be immediately recognizable. Domain names tell people what websites are about, and this can be a big plus when someone is doing a search and looking for something specific.
7). The Public Domain: Ten Things You May Not Know About It
There's a little known world of free-to-claim products with unlimited profit potential, an Aladdin’s Cave of ready-made products for you to locate in minutes, re-package in hours, and sell as your own. It’s called ‘The Public Domain’ and it means you can legally copy and sell other people’s books, maps, films, and more, with no ongoing fees or royalties of any kind to pay … EVER! Here are ten more things you may not know about the public domain ….
.: Top Domain Names Articles
1). Mom discovered 16 year old son with $70,000 earned from Adsense.
This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding Adsense. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about Adsense.
If your Adsense facts are out-of-date, how will that affect your actions and decisions? Make certain you don't let important Adsense information slip by you.
Who Else Wants To Make Money With Adsense?
Fact number 1: Kids in high school are making thousands of dollars every month with Adsense.
2). Choosing a Domain Name for Your Domain Hosting
Your domain hosting name is not something to be chosen lightly. Your domain hosting name is your front line in your branding campaign for your online business (or your offline business’s online presence). Careful consideration needs to go into choosing just the right domain hosting name to represent your business. The following are some key points to consider:
The Right Extension for the Right Site
Each type of site you want domain hosting for may serve a different market.
3). The Value of Finance and Debt Related Domain Names
Why domain names can be a good investment!
We have a number of generic finance related domain names and have recently added to these through the £14,000 investment in debtconsolidation.co.uk and the purchase of debtfree.co.uk.
It's true that debt consolidation is one of the hottest terms especially in respect of PPC's and we believe we will get free traffic from people guessing the domains when they are looking for debt consolidation or debt free i.
4). Internet Marketing: The importance of a Domain Name
The domain name is the entry to your site. The address people type in their browsers to get to it. You need to pay attention to it, because your company name will not always be the best domain name you can get for your website. There are certain considerations you should keep in mind when choosing the domain name you will use:
· your domain name should be easy to remember for the intended audience
· your domain name should contain keywords so it helps your site positioning in search engines.
5). Expired Domain Name – What’s It All About?
Expired domain name is just a common status in the place of domain names. This certain status of the domain name takes place when the domain name holder forgot to renew the registered domain name, and so when a certain domain name is given as “expired domain name”, it is understandable that such expired domain name is on the way to deletion from the domain name registry.
6). GDI - Global Domains International Reviewed.
If you have been on the internet for any length of time looking at business options you will eventually come across someone promoting GDI to you. So this article is to answer some of the basic questions about GDI. Is this Business opportunity a scam? Do they have a product or service that is worthwhile? What is the potential of this opportunity? I will seek to answer these questions as objectively as possible.
7). Choose a Market You’re Passionate About and Stay Focussed
Choosing the right market is instrumental to your online success. It’s much more difficult to create a new market than to enter an existing market that is already highly profitable for existing businesses. The good thing about online business is that you can start a new business in a new market without as much overhead and headache as in the real world.