About the Public Domain Clearance Project

Started in spring 2016, the East Texas A&M University Archives Public Domain Clearance Project is an effort to determine and clarify the status of materials in the Digital Collections that are in the public domain.  It is intended as a service to researchers and end users that will allow them to use these public domain works freely without any conditions, as allowed by law.

The Public Domain Clearance Project is currently in a pilot phase, involving one collection and only two rationales for public domain status.

To report a suspected error regarding public domain status, please contact:

• Adam C. Northam | Digital Archivist - Adam.Northam@tamuc.edu

Scope of the Public Domain Clearance Project

The types of public domain materials currently being cleared through this project are:

• Materials published in the United States more than 95 years ago (as of 2019, this means prior to January 1, 1924).
• Materials created more than 120 years ago (regardless of publication status) if one of the following three conditions is fulfilled:​
  • The author's death date is unknown.
  • The work was created anonymously.​
  • The work was created as a work for hire.

Legal basis of the Public Domain Clearance Project

According to the United States Copyright Office:

• "The 1976 Copyright Act carried over the system in the 1909 Copyright Act for computing copyright duration for works protected by federal statute before January 1, 1978, with one major change: the length of the renewal term was increased to 47 years. The 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act increased the renewal term another 20 years to 67 years. Thus the maximum total term of copyright protection for works already protected by January 1, 1978, has been increased from 56 years (a first term of 28 years plus a renewal term of 28 years) to 95 years (a first term of 28 years plus a renewal term of 67 years)." (U.S. Copyright Office Circular 15A: Duration of Copyright, p. 2)
• "The law automatically gives federal copyright protection to works that were created but neither published nor registered before January 1, 1978. The duration of copyright in these works is generally computed the same way as for works created on or after January 1, 1978: life plus 70 years or 95 or 120 years, depending on the nature of authorship...For works made for hire and anonymous and pseudonymous works, the duration of copyright is 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter (unless the author’s identity is later revealed in Copyright Office records, in which case the term becomes the author’s life plus 70 years). " (U.S. Copyright Office Circular 15A: Duration of Copyright, p. 1)

For further reference, note the following direct passages from Title 17 of the United States Code, the Copyright Law of the United States:

• § 302 (c) "In the case of an anonymous work, a pseudonymous work, or a work made for hire, the copyright endures for a term of 95 years from the year of its first publication, or a term of 120 years from the year of its creation, whichever expires first."
• § 304 (a)(1)(A) "Any copyright, in the first term of which is subsisting on January 1, 1978, shall endure for 28 years from the date it was originally secured."
• § 304 (a)(2)(A): "At the expiration of the original term of copyright in a work specified in paragraph (1)(B) of this subsection, the copyright shall endure for a renewed and extended further term of 67 years".
• § 304 (b): "Any copyright still in its renewal term at the time that the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act becomes effective [1998] shall have a copyright term of 95 years from the date copyright was originally secured."