Public Domain

Competition for Public Domain Works

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Public Domain works cannot be ‘used’ up like a regular resource, such as oil or coal. So, if
one entrepreneur (or infopreneur) taps up a public domain work on ‘making more money’
or ‘public speaking’, nothing is stopping you from using the same resource for your own
business venture.

How does that work?

Let’s take a real-world, non public domain example. Consider the number of pizza joints in
your town? Quite a lot, aren’t they? And yet, almost every month or so, you hear of a new
pizza place opening up. Essentially, what are these people doing?

They are taking an idea, and differentiating it to build a business.

There’s a powerful business idea enshrined in that sentence. What is it?

There are seldom new ideas, but there are always new products.

You don’t need to ‘invent’ something, or ‘create’ something that is ‘new’. In fact, all you
need to do is follow the two basic marketing principles:

* Find an idea or need that is in hot demand (we already discussed this when you
learned how to research your market);
* Find a new way to package and sell that idea / solution.

There are details, but if you are looking to keep one eye on the ‘big picture’, these are the
two steps any successful business MUST have taken.

You can use the same information/public domain work that someone else has used, and
create your own product from it!

But wait…What about market competition?

That’s a very good point and an important one in this case. If too many people start
marketing the same type of products (that is, there is too much competition in one market),
it isn’t as profitable as before to start a business in that niche.

However, it’s important to understand the ‘nature’ of the Public Domain.

The Public Domain is not a business in itself. It is the information, the knowledge
contained in public domain works that can be used within a business.

In other words, the public domain is a very powerful resource. Nothing more. Since
everyone can essentially use the same information, you can have a situation in which the
same knowledge, packaged in more or less the same formats, is saturating the market.

Do It Yourself Or Paid Copyright Searches for Public Domain Certification

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When determining whether a document is in the public domain, should you pay for the
copyright search or should you do it yourself? This is a good question, and the answer lies,
as usual, in the method.

You should find two to three solid business ideas from confirmed public domain works
(works published before 1922, or government publications, or works ‘donated’ to the public
domain). You can then use them to start off two or three income streams, and once you
have a small but steady income from your fledgling online business empire, expand by
picking up more lucrative topics that may require more research and money.

Let’s face it: No one is going to help you build a fortune by selling you the content for $27,
$47, $97 or even $197 if they could possibly use it themselves in a massive way and
generate at least $1000 per month from it. Thus, what you are getting from public domain
packages on the Internet is small stuff – works that you can use to get started, but definitely
not your final destination.

Use these packages if you feel the need (Russell Brunson’s The Lost Files and
NichePD.com are two excellent starting points) to get a quick start, but in the end, if you
want to build a serious business, there is only one way to do it:

Do it yourself!

The fees charged by the Copyright Office are not too exorbitant ($70/hour for copyright
search and an additional $80/hour for search report certification) and subject to change –
you should contact the Copyright Office to confirm not only the rates, but also how much
time they will need for the whole process (just give them the details of the work (title,
author, etc) and they will give you an estimate.

Assuming that you have to spend $400 (a fairly high estimate) on copyright research, is it
worth it?

If you’ve followed my advice, you would only go for a business idea (and thus a potential
public domain work) if the returns were significant – say at least $1000 per month. If yes,
then the initial investment might be worth it (you would easily recoup your investment
within a month). On the other hand, if this was to be a $200 per month venture and you
had to spend $600+ to set everything up, you might want to think twice (although in the
long run you might still end up with a profit.

Finding Public Domain Materials On and Offline

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There are several public domain websites on the Internet that offer nothing else except
public domain works. And, of course, there are many marketers (some famous and some
not so famous) selling public domain material. The most recent addition to this group was
Russell Brunson with his fascinating collection of ‘The Lost Files’. While this is an amazing
package, the problem is that of redundancy – the books have been on the market through
other public domain marketers for almost a year, and already have a lot of competition in
their niches.

Where to focus? Always keep an eye out for great content, but remember that anything
sold in a package is something the marketer thought they could make more money off by
selling to newbie marketers rather than work on it themselves.

One resource you should definitely look at is:

http://www.nichepd.com

This is a very useful package. In fact, there is even a free public domain work provided on
this website.

Other than public domain packages, there are dozens of online public domain portals. But
remember, if you don’t already have a great idea in mind (and thus a matching niche to
search in), you could spend a lot of time browsing through public domain works and
checking up on their profitability.

Many online marketers discount the actual hustle and bustle of searching for public
domain works in libraries and bookstores to be an unbearable burden, not only on your
daily time but also on your mental capacity. But hang on, is it really that difficult?

Considering that if you really find a good niche through your Internet research and the
possibility of profits is more like $1000 per month rather than $100 per month (as many
public domain packages by themselves as sold by the marketers end up generating),
wouldn’t you take out a few hours to go and find the right public domain resource?

In most cases you can find the right niche, find the book title AND conduct the copyright
research, all online. Then, if the work is available online, you can easily download it, or if
you have to look for it in libraries, then just call your local library or bookstore and ask – it’s
as simple as that.

Libraries and bookstores are a wonderful source of information, public domain or
otherwise. You can also get many business ideas just by browsing through the magazine
section of your bookstore, or going through the old books in the library.

Once again, contrary to what marketers will tell you, finding the public domain work is not
hard – you just have to know where to look.

How can you profit from the public domain?

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Usually, if you get an idea from a product, or if you like a book and wish to write something
similar, you know that you can’t just copy the product or book directly. That would get you
a serious lawsuit for copyright violation.

On the other hand, public domain works are FREE for your use. You can republish them
as is, although you might want to make a few changes such as putting in your own
information, editing layout and packaging, etc. Or if you want, you can use the public
domain work to create your own derivative work.

Note: A derivative work is, according to copyright law, an artistic creation that includes
aspects of work previously created and protected. Derivative works of copyright-protected
works is prohibited by law, unless a specific permission is acquired by the author/copyright
holder. Since commercial use of a work in the public domain is not protected by copyright
law, creating a derivative work out of the public domain is commercially legal.

Since you are free to use information/works from the public domain and use them either
personally or commercially without restrictions, the possibility of profiting from public
domain works is immediate and very real.

Example of Public Domain Works

All copyrighted works that were published before 1923.

That may seem unimportant, until you realize that while today there is a staggering
amount of books and other works published and copyrighted each year, when we talk
about the public domain we are literally talking about centuries of published work! And
most of this is extremely relevant to today’s world.

For example, there are strong niche followings for these areas:

– Self-improvement
– Making more money
– Art
– Classical movies
– Fiction
– All sorts of hobbies
– History

And much more!

How can you use public domain works?

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There are countless ways that you can make money with public domain works. Let me
just suggest a few to give you an idea of the possibilities:

* Re-publish public domain content – A lot of the information is relevant today. Books
on recipes, public speaking, hobbies and learning languages all contain knowledge
that is applicable to our time (50 or 60 years don’t change the way you bake a cake,
for example). All you need to do is to find the relevant public domain work, re-
package it according to your needs and then create a business model around it.

* Use Public Domain as a source of content for your website. Whether you want to
start a membership website or just an informational website that earns money
through advertising and affiliate revenue, the important thing is that you won’t have
to wait for months to create the content – it’s ready for you to use immediately.

* Create a derivative work – Use the public domain work to spawn targeted, niche-
relevant products by creating your own product around it.

* Change the format of the public domain work – create an audio course for a how-to-
manual to increase the ‘perceived value’ of the product so you can make more
money off the same information.

* Release the product in multiple, complimentary mediums. This is a combination of
the above two ideas – You can teach a course using audio CDs, instructional watch-
and-learn DVDs and package a learning manual together to make a killer course
that is a physical product instead of allowing people to simply download your book.
This immediately raises the value of what you’re selling.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. There dozens and dozens of concrete examples of using
public domain works within your business, either to supplement your business model or to
create a new income stream.

Some people say that because the information in the public domain is limited, there’s no
point in going after the ‘public domain riches’. In fact, there has never been a better time to
start. What you should concentrate on is to find new ways to market old ideas.

How can you do that?

* Differentiate your product – Instead of selling old and rare books, work on
building a niche for yourself on old philosophical works only. This is a very viable
business idea and I’ll tell you how in a little while.
* Find new ways to sell an existing product – The usual example given here is to
convert an eBook or how-to course into a series of audio tapes or videos.
However, you can also take an existing public domain work and split it up into
several parts, and sell them separately – a public domain work on poker
strategies could be divided into 3 parts – poker games, poker history and poker
strategies.
* Create a new product out of an old idea

How to find Public Domain Works

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Believe it or not, there’s actually some method to the search madness when looking for
public domain materials to use in your business. The search engines have a hard time
trying to organize the information precisely because the Internet is so decentralized and
vast. In this scenario, the expert searcher does not rely on Google; he relies on specific
search strategies.

The debate however, rages on about where to find public domain works: On the Internet or
in the real world, sifting through libraries and stores holding old books? The answer, of
course, is two-pronged: You can use both avenues to supplement your research – find a
public domain title via the Internet and acquire through a real-world search. Alternatively,
you can also download some public domain works from the Internet, and despite what
people might tell you, finding public domain works in bookstores and libraries is quite easy.

In searching for public domain material you can use:

The Search Engines

A search engine can only point you to the general direction of public domain repositories,
and as such should only be used if you don’t have any previous leads on a market.

Niche Directories

This is a little better, as directories allow you to find niche-specific information. The only
problem here is that some directories may not have the same breadth of information as the
search engine might have, and as such you may miss out on a lot of decent public domain
works.

Government websites

If you are looking to use government publications as your target public domain resource,
then the Internet is your haven. Most, if not all, government publications find their way
online and very quickly, as well. This is excellent news for anyone wishing to use such
information as content for their website, or as part of their services.

Online Libraries

This is where it starts to get interesting – while most online libraries will consist of recent to
moderately old books, you can find many fantastic public domain resources here. The best
part is that many local libraries have started creating online portals, and you can search in
your local library before actually heading over.

If that is not the case, the best you can do is to find the relevant public domain work and
once you have a title and author, search for it online – more on this later.

Quick Facts About Public Domain Works

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Here are some quick facts that you should know about the copyright laws applying to the
public domain.

Note: These laws apply to works published in the US. For unpublished works and for
works published outside the US, see the resources listed later on.

· Any works published (with or without copyright) before 1923 are in the public
domain.

· Any works copyrighted in 1923 or later (with their copyrights renewed in time) will
stay OUT of the public domain till 2018 or longer. This is due to a 20-year copyright
extension enacted in the US in 1998. Usually you can check on the book itself the
copyright date, and if a copyright is renewed, that date is also placed on the book.

· Certain works copyrighted in 1923 or later may have already entered the public
domain because of certain legal constraints. The following types of works
o Works published in the US before 1989 without proper copyright notice
and
o Works published in the US before 1964 whose copyrights were not
renewed

· Works from 1923 or later that were originally published in countries outside the US
may still be copyrighted regardless of whether they were printed with proper notice
or renewed.

· Works that were never registered for copyright prior to 1978, and were never
published prior to 2003, are now in the Public Domain in the US if:
o The author(s) died more than 70 years ago before the most recent New
Year’s Day. For 2005, this means authors who died before 1935. For
more than one author, this applies to the last surviving author.

This is just a quick overview of the copyright law to help you understand what you will be
dealing with when venturing into the public domain. There are other people who have
written comprehensively on this matter – one such resource is from the Cornell Copyright
Center:

http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/training/Hirtle_Public_Domain.htm

That contains a detailed and comprehensive table that tells you how the copyright law and
the public domain applies to unpublished works, works published in the US and even
works published outside the US. It is a truly remarkable and useful resource to have for a
public domain businesses.

Another brilliant (an understatement at best) resource is by the law firm Bromberg &
Sunstein:

http://www.bromsun.com/practice/copyrights/copyright_durations.html

Resolving copyright issues

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A general rule for determining whether a public domain book is in the public domain is to
check if it is published. If the book is published and the copyright date is 1922 or
before,then it is in the public domain.

But the real problem comes for works that are:

* Published after 1922 (1923 and onwards)
* Not published at all

For works published after 1922, there are several other criteria – yes, the copyright law
becomes a bit convoluted, but here’s the gist of it:

* If the work is published before 1964 without copyright renewal, it is in the public
domain.
* If the work is published before 1978 in the US without formal copyright notice, it
is in the public domain.

And if these two conditions are satisfied (work is copyrighted and was renewed), we now
enter the area of copyright law that has many content publishers protesting.

Essentially, the current copyright laws (based on the 1976 Copyright Act and the 1998
copyright extension) mean that any works published after 1922 (that have been
copyrighted and renewed) cannot enter the public domain until 2019!

The good news is, if this can be called good news, that 2019 onwards, the public domain
will start gaining a year’s worth of creative content every year. While this may seem like a
long time to wait (and like I’ve shown in this book, there’s no need to wait that long), that is
when the real power of the public domain will materialize (unfortunately, there are chances
that the copyright laws will become even more stringent).

If the work has not been published, there is a simple method to find out if it falls into the
public domain.

Unpublished works in the public domain begin with works created 120 years before the
current year of reckoning, and for authors who died no later than 70 years before the
present year. It simple terms, this means that if the current year is 2006 and you want to
use an unpublished work as public domain, it has to be created in 1886 or earlier, and the
author has to have died by 1936 or earlier.

If not, the work is not in the public domain.

Resolving copyright issues

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Two cases -- copyright renewal and unpublished works – present challenges for public
domain users because this is the most difficult task in the public domain business –
verifying that a creative work can be used as public domain or not.

There are several ways you can check copyright renewal for yourself. These links are
included below, and of course, the easiest one is to do this online. If you happen to live in
Washington D.C. (home of the Copyright Office) or near a large library like the San
Francisco Library, you might save on some money by heading down to the location and
looking through the copyright records yourself.

Alternatively, partial copyright renewal records are also placed online. These aren’t
search-friendly (just direct scans of the actual documents), so you might find this a hassle
as well (but it is cheaper than the next option).

If you really want to do this right (and save your own time as well) the Copyright Office can
verify copyright renewals for you for a per-hour fee. There is a document entitled
“Copyright Status” available from the Copyright Office themselves outlining the process
through which a person can verify the copyright renewal on any potential public domain
work. The best part is that they also offer to certify the copyright search (for an extra hourly
fee of course), as something that can ‘meet the evidentiary requirements of litigation’. In
other words, the Copyright Office will provide you with a legal grounding for your endeavor
if you choose to use a public domain work.

What about unpublished works? Whether you are in possession of an unpublished work or
come to know of one, the process of determining its position is the same.

* Find out who the author is.
* Find out the date of creation.

With the name of the author, you can usually search the Internet to find any possible
background information, and when they passed away. Using this information and the date
of creation, you can then determine if the work is in the public domain.

Can the Public Domain Ever Be “Used Up”?

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When discussing public domain, people often ask:

The public domain is limited. Even if it will never be ‘used up’, it’s going to be used more
and more compared to what will be added to it in the next few years. What will happen
then? Will the public domain become useless?

First off, there is literally so much contained within the Public Domain already that so many
of the regular people don’t know about, that there is no chance of the public domain
‘running out’ of options in the foreseeable future. And then, of course, more work is being
added to the public domain every day.

This is another area where people are often ignorant, or just don’t make the effort to think
hard (no offense, it’s a big problem with the world today).

When most Internet Marketers talk about the public domain, they only talk about books
and recipes and self-improvement courses. Now, this is either because they don’t know
better, or they’re not telling you everything. In both cases, they are doing you a huge
disservice.

The future of Public Domain is in its diversity. With government publications on
environmental issues, public health issues, and many more subjects of relevant interest
being placed in the public domain every year, this is just ONE of the sources of public
domain that you can use to generate a stable income stream.

But there are literally THOUSANDS of sources of public domain. You’ll find music,
software, art, movies, and more. Most importantly, the public domain is full of ideas!
Many of those ideas can help you in your business.

How does this help you?

There is more than one way of profiting from a market. For now, remember this:

The Public Domain is far wider, and far deeper an ocean than you think (and the Internet
Marketing gurus would have you believe).