Creative Commons-licensed works are not necessarily in the public domain. A work with a “CC0 ” (CC Zero) dedication may have the effect of dedicating it to the public domain. Other kinds of Creative Commons licenses, however, do not have that effect. Creative Commons “share alike” licenses, such as CC BY-SA 2.5 ,might authorize sharing […]
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No. Most online works are protected by copyright. Publishing a work to the Internet is not equivalent to dedicating the work to the public domain. This is true even if a work is published to the Internet without a copyright notice. It is dangerous to assume that a work is free to use just because
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Anything that is not protected by copyright is in the public domain. This includes: Unprotectable subject matter (facts, information, ideas, methods, processes, inventions, titles, names, slogans, short phrases, common geometric shapes, familiar symbols, unoriginal compilations systems (e.g., ordering things alphabetically), works created by U.S. government employees, natural objects formed or shaped by natural forces without
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