Archival Storytelling: A Filmmaker's Guide to Finding, Using, and Licensing Third-Party Visuals and Music

CHAPTER 12

The Public Domain

Filmmakers wanting to use material protected under intellectual property laws, as described in the previous chapter, will generally need to seek permission and perhaps pay a fee for that use. In some circumstances, filmmakers in the United States may claim the fair use exception to copyright (Chapter 14). And in some cases, as described in this chapter, there is no need to seek permission because the material is not, or is no longer, protected by intellectual property laws. When this happens, and there are no copyright, trademark, or patent restrictions involved, the material is described as being in the public domain. The public has free access to use and reuse the intellectual property contained in the material ...