Creative Commons Reveals a Public Domain Mark

Creative Commons has announced that it has released the Public Domain Mark, a new tool similar to the ones for the various Creative Commons licenses. The new mark will label works that are in the public domain to make it easier for users to determine which works can be freely used or modified.

"The Public Domain Mark, to be used for marking works already free of copyright, complements Creative Commons’ CC0 public domain dedication, which enables authors to relinquish their rights prior to the expiration of copyright," Creative Commons announced.

Creative Commons already has a number of marks for works released under a CC license. However, these licenses, while granting others permissions to reuse or even modify the works are still, at heart, copyright licenses.

However, Public Domain works are not covered by copyright at all, either because the copyright period has expired or because the creator has relinquished all copyright claims.

Creative Commons says that the new mark is intended mostly for older works as determining which newer works are in the public domain is trickier even if the author wants to make them freely available.

The new Public Domain Mark will complement the existing CC0 license which enables authors to release works under very little restrictions. The Public Domain Mark applies to works which already have no copyright restrictions.

"Europeana—Europe’s digital library, museum and archive—is the first major adopter of the Public Domain Mark. Europeana estimates that by mid-2011, the Public Domain Mark will be used in connection with millions of out-of-copyright works made available through its portal," Creative Commons added.

Labeling all of the works as Public Domain is not as straightforward as it sounds since copyright law varies, sometimes greatly, around the world. Creative Commons has said that it intends to create a system for labeling works that may be in the public domain in only a few countries.