copyright free

As The Public Domain Review reminds us, “Each January 1st is Public Domain Day, where a new crop of works have their copyrights expire and become free to enjoy, share, and reuse for any purpose.”

In the United States, that means works published in 1926, or before, and all pre-1923 sound recordings. (Copyright terms vary from country to country.) So, if you’re inclined to use the words (or sounds) of others in your own poetry (or music, or erasures), you will no longer have to worry about crediting Ernest Hemingway for that quote from The Sun Also Rises, or A.A. Milne for Winnie-the-Pooh, among a great many other materials now copyright-free. (You don’t have to, but you might do so anyway out of professional courtesy.)

If you wouldn’t know where to begin, have a browse through the inspiring Collections at The Public Domain Review. To learn more about copyright law in the U.S., visit the U.S. Copyright Office.