no exclusive intellectual property rights apply From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Public domain is a phrase that describes something that belongs to all people in general: the public. The public domain contains works (such as books, films, or paintings) that are not under copyright protection.
The opposite of "public domain" is copyrighted material, which is owned either by the creator of the work or their estate. The term public domain is only used to describe things that can be copyrighted, such as photographs, drawings, written articles, books or plays, or similar works of art. As a general rule, all intellectual property works, after enough time has gone by, will become part of public domain. Examples include the works of Leonardo da Vinci, William Shakespeare and Ludwig van Beethoven, and the books of Isaac Newton.
A work can enter the public domain in many ways.
In some cases, if a work enters the public domain after copyright expiration, anyone using the work may still be required to note who created the work. Even if some works are in the public domain due to not being copyrighted, there may be still non-copyright usage restrictions. For examples, even though the design of national currencies may be ineligible, or be unsuitable, for copyright, counterfeiting them for fraud is widely a very serious crime. Another example are logos and images that only have text or simple shapes. These logos aren't copyrighted in the United States, but they are often protected by trademarks.
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