@ -30,6 +30,8 @@ We therefore devise the term **safe/strong public domain**. Under this we includ
[Creative commons](creative_commons.md) has created a **public domain mark** that helps mark and find works that should be in a world-wide public domain (this is not a waiver though, it is basically only used as a metadata for very old works to be better searchable).
There are a number of places on the internet to look for public domain works, for a list see below.
## How to Create Public Domain Works
If you want to create a PD work (which you should), then generally in that work **you must not use any non-public domain work**. So, for example, you can NOT create a public domain fan fiction story about Harry Potter because Harry Potter and his universe is copyrighted. Similarly you can't just use randomly googled images in a game you created because the images are most likely copyrighted. Small and obscure exceptions (fonts, freedom of panorama, ...) to this may exist in laws but it's never good to rely on them, it's best to keep it safe and simply avoid utilizing anything non-PD within your works.
@ -50,4 +52,16 @@ For an example of a project project properly released into public domain see the
## Where to Find Public Domain Works
TODO
There are quite a few places on the Internet where you may find public domain works. But firstly let there be a warning: you always **have to** check the public domain status of works you find, it is extremely common for people on the Internet to not know what public domain is or how it works so you will find many *false positives* that are called public domain but are, in fact, not. This article should have given you a basic how-to on how to recognize and check public domain works. With this said, here is a list of some places to search (of course, this list will rot with time):
- **[Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)**: Contains only free as in freedom works among which are many PD ones. You can search for them with queries such as `cat incategory:cc-zero`. This site is quite reliable and serious about licensing, if you find a work marked as PD here, you can be reasonably sure this information is true.
- **[Internet Archive](https://archive.org/)**: The biggest Internet archive, huge amount of mainly old works such as scanned books and photos. Beware that this site contains all kinds of works from PD to [proprietary](proprietary.md) and works marked as PD should be checked as there can be errors. There is an *advanced search* tool that can help in searching for PD works, for example [this query](https://archive.org/search.php?query=possible-copyright-status%3A%28NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT%29%20OR%20licenseurl%3A%28%22http%3A%2F%2Fcreativecommons.org%2Fpublicdomain%2Fmark%2F1.0%2F%22%29%20OR%20licenseurl%3A%28%22http%3A%2F%2Fcreativecommons.org%2Fpublicdomain%2Fzero%2F1.0%2F%22%29) tries to achieve this.
- **[Opengameart](https://opengameart.org/)**: Site for sharing free as in freedom [game](game.md) art (pictures, 3D models, sounds, ...) among which are many under [CC0](cc0.md), i.e. PD. Submitted works are checked reasonably well so any CC0 work you find here is likely truly PD.
- **[Freesound](https://freesound.org/)**: Site for sharing sound recordings and sound effects, contains many [CC0](CC0.md) sounds that should be PD.
- **[Project Gutenberg](https://www.gutenberg.org/)**: Archive of old digitized books. NOT ALL are PD, but the real old ones should be. Generally books from before the 20th century should be PD.
- **[Stocksnap](https://stocksnap.io)**: Quality photos and "stock images" under [CC0](CC0.md), i.e. PD.
- **[Librivox](https://librivox.org)**: Public domain audiobooks made by volunteers that read PD books from Project Gutenberg.
- **[Wikisource](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page)**: Repository of texts, similar to Project Gutenberg, same rules apply (not all texts here will be PD but the real old ones should be).
- **[Openclipart](http://openclipart.org)**: Vector graphics, all under [CC0](cc0.md), i.e. PD in theory, **however** there do appear pictures that are derivative works of copyrighted works for which of course this is irrelevant. Check very well anything you download from here.
- **[Blendswap](https://www.blendswap.com/)**: Site for exchanging 3D models for [Blender](blender.md), not all models are PD but the ones marked CC0 should be, however **NOT those marked as "fan art"!**
- **[Wikidata](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_Page)**: Database of "everything", published as a whole under [CC0](cc0.md) which should make it PD, **however** it will contain information about proprietary works which may make this status questionable sometimes. If you only use data that don't fall under this you should be safe.
Miloslav Ciz
2 years ago