Public domain

The term public domain is an often misunderstood and misused term. Generally it means that the material is not protected by copyright law. Generally, there are three situations in which a work will be in the public domain: (i) a work[[ for which [[copyright protection was never available; (ii) a work for which copyright protection was never properly secured, and (iii) a work for which copyright protection has expired or has otherwise been lost.

However, much material that is in the public domain in the United States may still be protected by copyright elsewhere in the world.