Tips to Finding & Using Public Domain Content
You have a website but are running dry on article ideas and low on time to write them. How do you find free information you can use? Want to write an ebook but don't know where you can get solid content? The public domain has a plethora of free articles, magazines, and books that you can utilize without penalty. But before you jump right into it, there are three very important things you must know first.
What is Public domain?
The copyright laws in the U.S. protect original content from being stolen, modified and plagerized for 28 years from the time it's published. That means, that if you publish a book, a magazine or an article today, it is protected for the next 28 years. No one can touch it, copy it or modify it without your express permission. When the 28 years are up, you can apply to renew the copyright for another 28 years. You won't find Time magazine articles in the public domain because they consistently renew all of their publications. This is generally out of the norm. The large majority of newspapers and magazines permit the copyright to expire and move into the public domain. You can find hundreds of Popular Science issues dating all the way into the 1800's. The content within these old magazines are free for you to use, update, modify and change as you see fit. The best part is that each magazine contains a lot of information still relevant to today and they are already written in article format. It takes little effort on your part to incorporate them into your site.
Know The Rules
Once you know the basic rules, there is no stopping you from snatching up this treasure trove of content. The first rule is to check the publish date against todays date. Remember, it must be older than 28 years of publication. Generally, anything before 1923 up to and including 1964 is usually listed in the public domain and up for grabs. Anything published after March 1964 is NOT available to you because it's still under the copyright laws. Be aware that there is the possibility that the author may have renewed the copyright. There is a very easy way to find out.
Breaking these rules could land you in serious legal action against. You're best bet is to obtain a copy of Public Domain Riches which clearly shows you all the in's and outs of finding, verifying copyrights and excellent ways to use the information to boost your site's traffic, build a content rich site, put together a killer newsletter, write a best selling ebook and boost your sales. This program was featured in the 2007 issue of Web 2.0.
Do A Keyword Search
When looking for old magazines or books, your first step is to do some keyword based research. Ebay is a good source of out-of-print content. What topic are you looking for? Enter your subject, for example "watercolor painting magazines" and look for publications that fall after 1964. Two other good sources are www.alibris.com and www.addall.com . There are also good directories you can find in your public library such as the Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature and N.W. Ayers & Son's Directory among others.
You can also snatch up piles of old issues at garage and estate sales.
Search the Copyright Records
When you find a magazine you like you need to do a copyright search so as to make sure it is in fact listed in the public domain. You must do this research so as to keep yourself out of legal trouble. Copy the title and year of publication and go to www.copyright.gov to start your search. Go to the bottom right of the page and click on "Set Search Limits". It is here you set the parameters for your search. You can search books, magazines, films etc. In the Item Type category, click on "Serials". Serials is another word for magazines. Then you can search by title. Sort the list by publish date in descending order so you can easily see the oldest issues first.
When you find a magazine you like. Take the title and year and do a copyright search to make sure it is in public domain. Lookin at the copyright numbers you can easily spot the issues whose copyrights were renewed for another 28 years because they will have "RE" in front of the copyright number.
For older issues 1923-1950 you search at http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/cce . Add 28 years to the publish date and check and see if its been renewed. Look for renewal records by year and/or by author (to double check if a particular article within a magazine was renewed) most are not. Doing this extra step will ensure your not violating any laws. Scroll down to Renewal for Periodicals. If you can't find it in the list, then that is good because it means that it is in fact in public domain and available to you for use.