The article at Public Domain Sherpa seeks to clear up misconceptions about the public domain in the United States.
Here are the questions covered.
- If a work is within the scope of most people’s general knowledge it’s in the public domain.
- Anything I find on the Internet is in the public domain.
- If a work doesn’t have a copyright notice on it, it’s in the public domain.
- If a work has a copyright notice on it, it’s not in the public domain.
- If I republish or repackage a public domain work, I can claim copyright in it.
- Posting a video to YouTube puts it in the public domain.
- Books that are out of print are in the public domain.
- All US government works are in the public domain.
- Statues and other art works on federal property are in the public domain.
- If a work is in the public domain I don't need to get permission from anyone, no matter how I want to use it.
http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/10-misconceptions-about-the-public-domain.html