When Copyright Ends (or Never Was): Understanding the Public Domain

Presentation given as part of Lyrasis copyright education series for cultural heritage institutions. Learning objectives—Students will be able to:
• Identify relevant facts and law to asses when copyright
protection begins
• Identify whether a given work is or is not encumbered by
copyright
• Apply basic rules and standards for copyright eligibility to
examples based on real-world situations
• Apply basic rules to measure the duration of copyright,
including the important threshold question of whether a work
has been published
• Distinguish between types of works that are eligible for
copyright protection and those that are not (i.e., born public domain)