Copyright: Public Domain

A work of authorship is in the “public domain” if it is no longer under copyright protection or if it failed to meet the requirements for copyright protection. Works in the public domain may be used freely without the permission of the former copyright owner. (https://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-definitions.html)

Works that are in the public domain in the U.S. are not protected by copyright for any of the following reasons:

1. The author dedicated them to public use
2. The copyright term has expired without renewal
3. The work is of a type that does not qualify for copyright protection

You can use any U.S. work in the public domain in any way that you want, as much as you want. They belong to the public. Keep in mind, however, that the requirements for public domain vary by country.

There are several great resources for finding and accessing materials in the public domain:

• Project Gutenberg for books
• Public Domain Information Project (PD Info) for music
• OpenFlix for movies
• For images: Advanced searches in Google Image & Flickr (these allow you to search for license type), Flickr Creative Commons (scroll through recent uploads of different licensed content), NYPL Digital Collections (look for "Free to use without restriction"), and more.