SWITCH Information Literacy Tutorials Home
Citing Information & Avoiding Plagiarism Tutorial
Evaluating Information
Integrating Information from Sources
Citing Information
What is Plagiarism?
Paraphrasing
Direct Quotation
Summarizing
And Then There's Copyright
Copyright Infringement vs. Plagiarism
Glossary of Terms
Properly Using and Citing Information Quiz
SWITCH Information Literacy Tutorials Home

Works NOT Protected by Copyright

Works found in the public domain may be used for any purpose without violating copyright law. Generally speaking, these include works published in the US before 1923 and works created by the federal government. Other works pass into the public domain based on the extent of their copyright term and when it expires.

PUBLIC DOMAIN SOURCES
US Constitution
Shakespeare
 EXAMPLES
Works published by the US government The US Constitution & US Laws
Works where the copyright has been waived by the creator, or the creator allows use and dissemination of a work in certain cases (e.g., non-commercial purposes)
Clip art and software called freeware made available through such organizations as the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project where individuals are encouraged to work with and build upon an existing work
Works where the copyright has expired Works by William Shakespeare
The US Copyright Office features categories of public domain works.

FACTS, COMMON KNOWLEDGE & IDEAS are not copyrighted!
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