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Public Domain - Duration of Copyright

'Public domain' has a specific meaning in copyright law. It refers to material for which copyright has expired. Material that is available to the public via the Internet or other means is not public domain simply by reason of its being publicly available.

The term of duration is determined with reference to the lifetime of the creator. As a general rule, copyright usually lasts for the lifetime of the creator plus 70 years.

Note that the duration of copyright has recently been extended in Australia to meet obligations under the Free Trade Agreement with the United States of America: whereas copyright used to last for the lifetime of the creator plus 50 years, it now lasts for the lifetime of the creator plus 70 years.

Some types of works have different periods of duration. A chart detailing the duration periods for different types of copyright works is available here. Or please check with the Copyright Adviser for further information.

Changing a work in the public domain can create a new copyright work. For example, alternations or translations of out-of-copyright literary works or an arrangement of out-of-copyright musical works may mean that the altered work is a new work and therefore under copyright protection.

Once the copyright in a work has expired the work may be used freely by anyone. There is no mechanism by which the term of copyright may be extended or shortened.

The term of duration for copyright may differ from one country to the next. Individuals should observe the legislation of the country in which they propose to enact the use of the copyright work. For example, if an old book is to be scanned onto 50 CDs for use in a course overseas, the duration period for the book will be determined by the legislation of the country in which the scanning and CD-burning takes place.

For items of material that consist of several copyright works, the copyright must be expired in each work before the item of material is entirely public domain. For example, for an audio recording to be public domain, copyright in the underlying written composition (musical work) and the lyrics (literary work) must have expired for the entire recording to be considered public domain. Similarly, the published edition must be considered in determining whether a particular literary, dramatic or musical publication is public domain.