The Five Minute Guide To “What Is In The Public Domain?” (0 Comments)
Just how exactly do you determine what is in the public domain?
I have come across this useful acronym to describe whether a work is in the public domain
If it in the FRIDGE – its in the public domain.
F is Facts
R is Recipes
I is Ideas
D is Dedicated Works
G is Government Works (U. S)
E is Expired Works
FACTS:
Any fact whether historical or present, scientific or biographical are Public Domain. News reports and news broadcasts are sometimes copyrighted but not the news itself so you can rewrite a news article in your own works and you are not breaking any copyrights as facts just cannot be copyrighted.
Some Facts related Public Domain resources:
News:
http://www. cnn. com/
Biographies, Histotical facts, science and more:
http://www. infoplease. com/world. html
Selected historical transcripts, translations and facsimilies from Western Europe
http://eudocs. lib. byu. edu/index. php/Main_Page
RECIPES:
Recipes actually come under facts. Same sort of thing though you will have to reorder the ingredients and rewrite the methods to avoid copyright complications. The annotations and pictures in a published cookbooks are copyrighted however the recipes themselves are not. Although not protected by copyright they can be protected to a certain degree by intellectual property laws so proceed with caution in you are unable to make recipe look like your own.
Here are some sites for food for thought:
Searches over 400,000 recipes by ingredient, recipe, dish, chef etc.
http://www. foodieview. com/index. jsp -
Recipes approved and provided by home cooks worldwide:
http://allrecipes. com/
Another searchable database:
http://www. recipeland. com/
