I have had versions of the conversation that follows with many authors and publishers over the years. What you see below addresses many of the issues you need to consider when trying to determine what music may be available in the public domain. (Note: I am not an attorney and this should not be considered legal advice. I am just someone who spends a lot of time dealing with copyright issues and researching the applicable laws. I may not have all of the answers, but I at least know most of the questions.)

I am turning my book into an audio book, and I want to add music to it. I have an English-language recording of a traditional German folk song from the 1800s that fits my book perfectly. Because the song is so old, there would not be any copyright issues with using it, would there?

There are several issues that must be considered before you use the song. First of all, copyright laws in other countries are not necessarily the same as in the United States. This song is old enough that it is probably in the public domain both in the U.S. and Germany.

However, the recording you have probably is not. The performers of the song would hold a copyright on the recording of the performance. Unless the copyright has expired or otherwise does not exist (e.g., the copyright holder chose to place the work in the public domain), you would need permission from the artists to use their work.

It would be more work, but I guess I could record the song myself. I have sheet music my band can use.

Not so fast, Sparky. The arrangement in that sheet music may be covered by copyright. Performing and recording the song, as written in the sheet music, may require permission from the arranger.

<Sigh> OK, so my band and I will come up with our own arrangement. Do you see any problem with that?

At least one. You mentioned that you are planning to use an English-language version of a traditional German song. Is the translation of the lyrics copyrighted? Even if the original work is not covered by copyright, the translator may hold a copyright on his or her translation.

These points may seem like nitpicking, but they matter to the copyright holder. As someone who creates intellectual property, you would not want someone using your work without your permission. Extending the same courtesy to others is not just the friendly thing to do, it is the law.

There are lots of copyright, public domain and other intellectual property law issues that require consulting with an attorney to understand how the law applies. However, having a basic understanding of copyright law can avert many problems and help you figure out what questions you need to ask and when you need to get an attorney involved. If you want to know more about determining the public domain status of a work, my favorite reference is The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More by Stephen Frishman. Get your copy now at Amazon.com.

“I received a form rejection letter for a series of books I pitched to a large book publisher a couple of year ago. I just got back from Barnes and Noble and, guess what? That same publisher just launched a new series and used all my book ideas!”

We get these types of emails frequently at WritersWeekly.com. It’s a disturbing trend and one that we should all keep in mind when pitching our ideas to the masses.

Unfortunately, you can patent new products, but you can’t copyright or patent new ideas. Any magazine or book publisher can “steal” your idea and assign it to another writer. In fact, they can steal your idea and write the article or book themselves. As nasty as it sounds, it does happen. And, with so many writers on the market, editors and publishers would prefer to assign good ideas to their steady stable of freelancers rather than hire an unknown (you).

So, what’s a writer to do?

WHEN AN EDITOR/PUBLISHER STEALS
If you have a really good idea, it might be prudent to write the article before pitching it. While I never recommend writing on spec, some ideas are just too good to pitch to potential thieves without some protection. We all know when we’ve written that one outstanding piece, or had that one idea that we just knew was going to sell. If the article is already complete, you have a better chance of selling the piece. If the piece is already complete, chances are they’re not going to hire someone else to rewrite it. Second, if the article is already written and includes statements from all your sources, it will be much easier to prove they stole your material later if they use your sources for a different article. And don’t forget to copyright it! So, while it’s impossible to prove someone stole your idea, it’s pretty easy to prove if someone rewrote the same article and used the same sources.

What can you do if someone steals your article or book idea? Unfortunately, not much. If you’re not positive they stole your idea and can’t prove it, spreading rumors about their alleged theft can get you into lots of legal trouble. If you’re positive they stole your idea, article or book, you need to let them know you’ll be telling the online writing community to watch out for them. If you alert enough of us about their unethical behavior, it could make a serious dent in the quality of the queries coming into their office.

WHEN A COLLEAGUE STEALS
When I wrote How to Publish and Promote Online with MJ Rose, we interviewed many industry insiders about ebooks and print-on-demand. After the book was complete, we sent copies of the ebook to all the contributors. Before we could blink, one of those contributors wrote a book that was so similar to ours that it made our stomachs turn. Yes, that person stole our idea, and had our entire book to use as a reference. What could we do? Nothing. But you can bet they got no favors or publicity from us after that stunt. And, whenever a member of the press mentioned that person was being interviewed for an article we were to appear in, we let them know what the idea thief did. More than one reporter told me they’d dropped them from their list of sources.

WHEN A FRIEND STEALS
Think your trusted friends won’t steal from you? Think again. Just last week I found a new writing newsletter online that is so similar to WritersWeekly.com that I felt grossly violated. The sections are almost identical. It is published by someone who I thought was my friend. No, what they’re doing isn’t illegal. But, it is very unethical. Let’s face it. If your friend were very successful at something would you launch a copycat publication? No, of course you wouldn’t. Not only would it make you a louse, but it would also be really stupid, especially if your friend had been helping you promote your products to a list of 70,000 writers.

So, what can I do? Nothing. But, you can bet that person won’t be getting any future favors from us. They more than bit the hand that was feeding them. They chopped the whole hand off and ran with it. This isn’t the first time a “friend” has betrayed me and copied my books and ezine. Unfortunately, it probably won’t be the last, and it could likely happen to you, too.

While the unethical behavior of idea thieves may be legal, you don’t have to sit back and allow yourself to be violated. There are perfectly legal ways of dealing with idea thieves. I’m not a vengeful person, and I’m sure you aren’t, either. But, if you sit back and let people violate you, they’ll keep stealing from you and others until someone teaches them a hard-earned lesson.

Most people who must resort to stealing for a living don’t stay in business long. (Just look at all the firms on our Warnings pages that stole from writers and then went out of business!). Their lack of creative skills prohibits them from succeeding in an industry where creativity is required for survival. The kindest souls are always blessed with the best creative sparks and they will always succeed while the idea thieves will ultimately fail.

Angela Hoy is the co-owner of Booklocker.com and WritersWeekly.com. WritersWeekly.com features new freelance jobs and paying markets for FREE via email every Wednesday. Booklocker.com publishes print on demand and electronic books and pays the highest royalties in the industry.

Do authors need to copyright their books? Most authors know they own the rights to their works from the minute they put pen to paper. That said, many authors will mail themselves their manuscripts to get them stamped by the post office so they have historical proof of having written the work. This process is often known as “the poor man’s copyright” but according to the U.S. Copyright Office, there is no stipulation in the law to make this legal.

In the old days, it may have also been easier for authors to prove they owned the rights to their works since they could probably produce their handwritten manuscripts, but today, with computers and the Internet, it may not be so easy to prove you own the copyright on your work since there is nothing unique about digital or computer files to show they are yours. In fact, if you typed your book in a Word document, who’s to say that same Word document on someone else’s computer couldn’t have belonged to that person first? While you may email your manuscript in Word form to a friend to read, and chances are your friend won’t publish it under his name, or it won’t mysteriously be taken from your email by some computer hacker, it may be best to play it safe.

Of course, authors are busy writing and getting their books printed or trying to find publishers so getting a copyright might seem like a hassle or at least like taking out insurance to protect your work from being stolen, something almost unlikely to happen. That said, getting a copyright is neither difficult nor expensive.

When do you apply for a copyright? You need to have a completed work, but a manuscript can be pre-registered (prior to publication), and then later, you can upload your completed book to the U.S. Copyright Office’s website or mail a paper copy of the book. Many authors are afraid when they mail out manuscripts to publishers that they will have their work stolen. If you are really concerned about that, you can get the manuscript pre-registered, but it is standard for most authors simply to type “copyright 2010” or whatever year on the submission page of the manuscript along with their contact information, thereby informing the publisher the author is aware of his rights to his own work. And no reputable publisher is going to try to steal an author’s book anyway. In fact, often your publisher will register the copyright for you if you are traditionally published.

If you self-publish, you can register with the U.S. Copyright Office yourself. Currently the cost is $35.00, not a whole lot more than printing and mailing a manuscript to yourself, and you can always count it as a business expense. If you don’t want to go through the trouble and you have been published by a subsidy or POD publisher, that publisher will usually register the copyright for a fee ranging from $99.00 and up because of the time it takes to register—about an hour, but remember they do it all the time. It might take you a little longer to do, but only you can determine how much your time is worth.

If you register the copyright yourself, it is fairly easy. Everything you need is at www.copyright.gov. The site is very user-friendly with Frequently Asked Questions, forms, and step-by-step instructions. You have the option either of mailing in your work to obtain your copyright, or you can use the website’s e-copyright process, which is easy, but because digital files take time to upload and several steps are involved, it can be time-consuming. When you have finished, you’ll receive a receipt for payment and a separate one for uploading. You’ll want to keep a copies on your computer and hard copies as well (see why below).

Each book is assigned a case number, which allows authors to check the status of their applications online. According to the U.S. Copyright Office, due to the tremendous backlog of applications, processing can take as long as nine months. Once the Copyright Office completes filing the registration, a certificate of your copyright will be issued to you.

Once you have sent your application in, you’ll want to check periodically to make sure everything is active in your file. Because computers and people both make mistakes, it is possible your application will get lost somewhere along the way, so that’s why you want to keep your receipts. After all, you don’t want to wait three or six or nine months, only to find out you have to start all over again.

Finally, one reason most authors may not think about as a reason to get their books copyrighted is to be prepared to sell a book’s film rights. After all, don’t we all wish Hollywood will come knocking? Recently, Claudia Newcorn, author of the fantasy novel “Crossover” has had the book optioned for screen rights. She told me, “If you enter negotiations on the book, for example with somebody for a movie, they are going to request your copyright number to signify to them that your book is registered, and it proves to the interested party that you do indeed own said manuscript/book, and are allowed to negotiate terms for it.” The same would be true not only for screen rights, but any other merchandising negotiations.

In short, the wait for a copyright may seem long, but the application process is not. Considering the hundreds of hours you may have spent writing your book, and the loss in revenue if it is stolen, plus the legal fees you will spend without guarantee of winning your case, the benefits of having your book copyrighted far outweigh the small cost of time and money to protect your book.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Most authors are concerned about retaining the copyright to their books, but too often, they forget to give the same attention to materials copyrighted by others, especially when it comes to images. Using photographs and other images in books often can be confusing for authors, whether they are taking their own photographs or using other people’s images.

Many authors are clueless about photography and how well an image may reproduce in a book. Book designers and printers can tell you stories of authors who submitted photocopied pictures, or grabbed copyrighted images from the Internet, not realizing they needed permission to use those images or that those images would not be of sufficient quality/resolution for their books. Even if an author is taking his or her own photographs, certain requirements must be met if those pictures are to be included in the book successfully.

Image Quality

It doesn’t matter what is a photo’s subject or who took the photo if the photo is not first of good enough quality to be reproduced in a book. At minimum, you want quality photos of at least 300 dpi but the higher the dpi the better. Many museums and photographers will scan photos for you at 400 or 600 dpi. The “dpi” (dots per inch) refers to the image’s resolution, the number of pixels in it, which determines how easily it can be shrunk or enlarged to fit your space needs.

If you are taking your own photos, be sure to use a digital camera and set it to the appropriate setting. Most professional photographers will not have any trouble with providing you with photos of the correct resolution but let them know what you need up front.

It is always best to talk to the printer you will use to see what is recommended and will be usable. The last thing you want to do is take a hundred photos only to find out they can’t be used when you send the files to the printer. In many cases, those photos cannot be replicated if they are photos of events. (You’ll also want to talk to the printer about what your paper choices are since images need better quality paper).

If you have some older pictures you definitely want to use, but they are not of such great quality, don’t fear. A good layout person can work with most any photo. It’s understandable if you’re doing a memoir, for example, that you may have some old snapshots in a photo album from fifty years ago you want to use. In most cases, these can be scanned, touched up, and manipulated so they will reproduce in a book. You can always take your photos to a professional photo developer to have them fixed up if need be, or you or your layout person can use Photoshop or another program to make the images presentable. Make sure you get a quote for any work done to the photos. Most layout people will charge you a certain fee for each photo they have to alter. I’ve seen prices from $1-10 per image, so make sure you do the math ahead of time and plan your budget accordingly.

Permissions

You cannot just grab a photo off the Internet and use it for your book, no matter how good its quality. Surprisingly, many authors do not realize this rule exists. If you do print a photo you haven’t acquired permission to use, you may end up paying serious fines or having other legal repercussions, so make sure you have the rights to the photographs you use.

“Historical” photographs may be old enough not to retain copyrights, but if they belong to an organization, such as a historical society, you still must gain permission from that organization and you will almost always have to pay a usage fee and sign a permission form. Make sure you let your source know you want to use the photo in a book. Permission rights and costs may differ depending on whether you want to use a photo on your book cover, inside your book, in your marketing pieces, or for a slide show or an education display.

Make sure you ask your source—whether it’s a museum, university archives, etc. if that source has the rights to the specific photos you want to use that are in their collection. That may seem strange, but photographers actually retain rights to their photographs. For example, I know one author who wanted photos of some old movie stars for his book. The photos he wanted were in a university archives, but they had been taken by a movie magazine that retained the rights. In his particular case, the magazine had gone out of business so the photos were donated to the Library of Congress, which would then need to be contacted for the rights. In other cases, you may want to reproduce a photo in an old book, so the book’s publisher may still have the rights; however, that publisher may have been bought by another publisher who in turn was bought by another publisher, so you need to contact the current publisher. It can become quite frustrating tracking down who has the rights to some photos, but it is in your best interest to make every effort to abide by the copyright laws, and if you can’t track down the owner, simply do not use the photo. In some cases, you might even decide the photo is not important enough to go through the cost and trouble of obtaining it.

Copyright on photos is currently seventy-two years, so if the photos are younger than that, you need to track the owners down. Even if the photographs are older than that, if they belong to a collection, such as a museum or library, you still will need to get permission.

Shopping Around

Acquiring permission to reproduce an image in your book can be not only time-consuming but also expensive, so shop around. If you’re writing a historical book and you need a photo of the old courthouse now torn down, the local county museum might charge you $20 for a photo, but the city museum might also have a similar but not the same photo and only charge you $10 while the local university archives might have a photo and only charge you $3. That said, you might find the county museum easier to work with and find it’s less trouble to pay $100 for five photos than $15 and get the run-around from the university archives. However, if your book is going to contain 100 historical photos, you will need to watch your dollars. You might also need to make some difficult decisions then about which photos are worth the expense of including in your book. It’s not uncommon to get photos from multiple sources, often with similar images, and just pick and choose those images.

Having a Creative Book Designer

Make sure you select someone who has experience in laying out a book with photos. You may want to ask a few different designers for copies of books with photographs they have done so you can see what kind of work they do. As an author, you may not have the artistic eye of a photographer or layout person, so look to see if the designer just plops photos “as is” into books, or if he or she is a bit creative with the photos. For example, if you use a historic photo of Theodore Roosevelt speaking to a crowd, the designer might crop the photo to provide a close up view of Roosevelt as well as the larger photo view. He might even zoom in on some details of woodwork on a building to provide some close up photos for your architecture book’s detail rather than just straight pictures of buildings.

While the use of the Internet makes distance of little concern today, you might feel more comfortable being able to sit down in person with the designer as you both decide to move a photo, enlarge or shrink it, or zoom in to enhance specific details. Working together in person still has its advantages over multiple emails, PDFs being sent, or talking on the phone. Remember, this book is yours and will have your name on it for the rest of your life, so as long as you’re willing to pay for it, you may want to get all the personal attention you possibly can from your layout person.

A Visually Stunning Book

In the end, photos and other images can enhance your book and create a visually stunning impression on readers. A history book with photos will definitely be purchased over one without, and for art, architecture, cooking, travel and many other kinds of books, the photos are as important, and sometimes even more important, than the text. Think through what you want, get quotes and talk to designers or photographers as needed. It will take a lot of effort, but in the end you can have a visually stunning book that will entice readers and make you proud.

Irene Watson is the Managing Editor of Reader Views, where avid readers can find reviews of recently published books as well as read interviews with authors. Her team also provides author publicity and a variety of other services specific to writing and publishing books.

Although the law does not specify exactly what constitutes fair use, the doctrine of fair use has developed through a substantial number of court decisions over the years and is codified in section 107 of the copyright law. Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered “fair,” such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair:

• the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
• the nature of the copyrighted work;
• amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
• the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

The distinction between “fair use” and infringement may be unclear and not easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Giving credit by acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission.

Some of the activities that courts have regarded as fair use include:

• quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment;
• quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations;
• use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied;
• summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report;
• reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy;
• reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson;
• reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports;
• incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.

Because fair use is not clearly defined, the prudent course is always to get permission from the copyright owner before using copyrighted material.

Cathy Stucker is the publisher of SellingBooks.com. Discover how to turn your book into streams of passive income and get a free one-hour audio about profiting from your content at http://www.CashContentFormula.com/.

Read an explanation of how works enter the public domain.

When you find a work that you believe is in the public domain, take steps to verify its status. Read an overview of what is required to investigate the public domain status of a work.

So you found a work that is in the public domain–now what do you do with it? Here are some suggestions on how to profitably use a public domain work.

Reprint the entire manuscript as a book. Or group it with other public domain works.

Make it an ebook. Put the book in a PDF file, then sell it from your Web site or give it away as a viral marketing tool. For example, give it away when someone subscribes to your email list.

Make changes to the work before publishing it. Instead of republishing the original book, make revisions by adding sections, updating information and language, offering commentary, etc.

Incorporate sections of the public domain work into your work. Include quotations or other material from the public domain in books, articles and other writings.

Convert the public domain work into another form, such as turning a novel into a play or movie script.

Put content from the book on your Web site. Create pages with several hundred words from the original work, and monetize them with Google AdSense, affiliate links or other advertising.

Use public domain content in the articles you write for your Web site, newsletters and article directories.

Record the public domain work and make it available as an MP3 download or on CD.

Books in the public domain may be used as you wish, without permission and without paying royalties to the original authors. However, when using public domain works, be aware of these issues:

Research carefully to verify that the work is in the public domain. The status is not always clear.

Photographs and illustrations in the original book may not be in the public domain, even if the text is.

Although you are not required to credit the original author, it is wise to do so. Representing something as your own original work may cause readers to question your integrity when they discover it was written by someone else. Give credit to the original author.

Additional Public Domain Information

As the IdeaLady, Cathy Stucker helps authors, entrepreneurs and professionals attract customers and make themselves famous with creative techniques that make marketing easy, inexpensive and even fun! Get free tips on marketing, publishing and more at http://www.IdeaLady.com/

The first thing to consider is the copyright date. This is usually found on the back of the book’s title page and will be in a format such as, “Copyright © 2006 John Author.”

If the work was created in 1978 or later (it does not have to be published), the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years, so the work would not be in the public domain.

Works published between 1964 – 1977 have copyright protection for a period of 95 years from the date of first publication, so they are not in the public domain.

Works published before 1923 are in the public domain.

Works published between 1923 and 1963 are covered by copyright for a period of 95 years, if the copyright was renewed. It is estimated that the copyrights for about 85% of printed works were not renewed. The trick is determining if the work you wish to use was renewed and is still protected by copyright, or if it has entered the public domain.

Although it is possible to research the copyright records yourself, it is wise to invest in a search by the Library of Congress or another knowledgeable party. Verifying that a work has passed into the public domain may involve checking several sets of records. There are other factors that may affect the public domain status of a work, and there are different rules that apply to foreign works. What is public domain in one country may still be covered by copyright in another.

Copyright records since 1978 are online at http://www.copyright.gov/records. If the work was published in 1950 or later, you may find the renewal in these records.

For works published between 1923 – 1950, you can search for renewal information by year at http://www.kingkong.demon.co.uk/ccer/ccer.htm.

To inquire about the Copyright Office doing the search for you, go to http://www.copyright.gov/forms/search_estimate.html.

A private firm that does a lot of copyright searches is Thomson & Thomson.

Additional Public Domain Information

As the IdeaLady, Cathy Stucker helps authors, entrepreneurs and professionals attract customers and make themselves famous with creative techniques that make marketing easy, inexpensive and even fun! Get free tips on marketing, publishing and more at http://www.IdeaLady.com/

Under current U.S. Copyright Law, most new books and other works are protected by copyright for the duration of the author’s life plus 70 years. However, it is possible to find many previously published works that may be freely used because they are in the public domain.

The reasons that a work is in the public domain can include that it was never subject to copyright, the author elected not to exercise his or her copyright and placed the work in the public domain, or the copyright has expired. Do not assume that something is in the public domain. Always investigate the status of a work before using any part of it.

Works created by employees of the Federal government in the course of their jobs are not covered by copyright. This means that many government publications are not covered by copyright and may be freely used. Laws and court decisions are also not covered by copyright.

Simple blank forms are not subject to copyright, although forms that have some element of creativity may be copyrighted. “Common property,” such as standard calendars, height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, schedules of sporting events, and lists or tables taken from public documents or other common sources is not subject to copyright; however, creative elements added to them may be protected. For example, although the standard calendar is not covered by copyright, images and design added to a calendar can be copyrighted.

In some cases, the author chooses to put the book in the public domain and not enforce their legal rights under copyright. This does not happen automatically, or due to an error such as leaving off the copyright notice. There is no set procedure for putting a book or other work into the public domain, however, the author must make his or her intention to do so clear, and must give up all rights of ownership.

When a work is covered by copyright, the protection does not last forever. The duration of a copyright is primarily dependent on when the work was originally copyrighted. See this guide to investigating the public domain status of a work.

Additional Public Domain Information

As the IdeaLady, Cathy Stucker helps authors, entrepreneurs and professionals attract customers and make themselves famous with creative techniques that make marketing easy, inexpensive and even fun! Get free tips on marketing, publishing and more at http://www.IdeaLady.com/

Whether you are writing a book, a speech, an article or anything else, how do you know that your creation is really your original work, and not just a “regurgitation” of the work of others? Most of us don’t intend to plagiarize anyone, but it is sometimes hard to determine where the ideas of others end, and ours begin.

One of my favorite sayings is that when you “borrow” from one source it is plagiarism, but when you borrow from many, it’s research. This is a clever way of saying that most creations are the result of taking in ideas, concepts and words produced by others, processing them through our brains, making unique connections, and putting our own influence on them.

Someone suggested that we take lots of information into our heads, the thoughts and bits of data float around our brains, and when two seemingly unrelated pieces connect, a new idea is born.

It has also been said that there are only 14 plots possible in fiction. Every book, play or movie is simply a retelling or combination of these 14 plots. What makes each work unique is the choice of characters and settings, the dialogue, and the twists and spins invented by the author.

We are all exposed to many of the same stimuli, and we may independently develop similar ideas. How many times have you seen a movie or a new product and thought, “That’s my idea!”? You know that there is no way they could have “stolen” your idea, but somehow the same thing occurred to someone else.

That’s why it is important to take action when you have an idea. Sooner or later, someone else will have the same idea you did.

What should you NOT do?

Don’t take someone else’s work, and simply reword it. That is plagiarism. It is illegal and immoral.

Don’t try to duplicate the success of others by creating confusion between your product and theirs. Using deceptively similar titles is one way this happens.

Don’t think that just because you CAN copy something, it is OK to do so. Computers and the Internet have made it easy to copy the words, images and sounds created by others, but that doesn’t make it right. Respect the work of others.

So, how do you make your work “original”?

Make unexpected connections.

Put a new spin on an old idea.

Use your own voice, and language that gives your work a unique style.

Imprint your work with your life experience and values.

If necessary, stay away from reading works related to your topic while you are writing. That way, you won’t inadvertently copy from them.

Act honorably, and respect the work of others as you would want them to respect yours. But don’t be afraid to put your ideas into the marketplace as your ideas, in your voice with your unique insights and perspectives.

Copyright Cathy Stucker. Cathy Stucker is the owner of SellingBooks.com, where she provides great ideas for writing, producing and marketing books. Get free email updates with the latest articles at http://www.SellingBooks.com/subscribe-to-updates/

Keep in mind that you can use the content found in public domain books “as is” or you may use it to create derivative works. That means that:

• Publishers can republish works found in the public domain.
• Writers can adapt public domain books and create new works, such as adapting a public domain novel into a screenplay.
• Webmasters can use public domain music, photos, images, and writing on their Web sites.

Books in the public domain (under U.S. Copyright law) include those copyrighted before 1923, and books published and copyrighted between 1923 and 1963 for which the copyright was not properly renewed. Works may also be in the public domain for other reasons, including lack of a proper copyright notice (if published before 1989). Additionally, most writings published by the Federal government are not covered by copyright and are in the public domain.

You might think that there is nothing of value in the public domain; however, public domain books include not only classic novels and poetry, but many self-help and how-to books that contain valuable information. Even books published before 1923 may contain information that is valid and useful today.

When you add your own creative content to a book in the public domain, you create a work that is now covered by your copyright. For example, if you add a foreword or introduction to a public domain book, you own the copyright on the new material although others may still freely use the original public domain content. You may also add illustrations or other embellishments to the public domain content, and those would be copyrightable by you if they are your original work.

If you have made significant changes to public domain content, such as rewriting the text to include more up-to-date language and examples, you hold the copyright to the new version and others can not republish your original content without your permission. Of course, if they have a copy of the original public domain work, they may publish that. Making your own revised version that is covered by your copyright does not change the fact that the original material is in the public domain.

To learn more about finding and using public domain books and other public domain information, see Public Domain Information.

As the IdeaLady, Cathy Stucker helps authors, entrepreneurs and professionals attract customers and make themselves famous with creative techniques that make marketing easy, inexpensive and even fun! Learn more when you subscribe to her free email newsletter at http://www.IdeaLady.com/