Wiktionary

public domain

English

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WOTD – 1 January 2022
 
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Etymology

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From public (“able to be seen or known by everyone”) +‎ domain (“field or sphere of activity, expertise, or influence”).[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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public domain (uncountable)

  1. (also attributively) Often preceded by in the.
    1. The state of not being owned by anyone, and thus freely usable by everyone.
      1. (specifically, law) The realm of intellectual property which is not or no longer protected by copyrights or patents, and thus over which no person can establish a proprietary interest.
        As the copyright in this book has lapsed, it is now in the public domain.
        • 2011 March 4, Séverine Dusollier, “SCOPING STUDY ON COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS AND THE PUBLIC DOMAIN”, in World Intellectual Property Organization‎[1]:
          Any regime applied to the public domain should ensure such free use. Yet, the ‘public domainness’ does not guarantee as such a freedom to access to the resources it contains. Access to a public domain work will depend on many factors.
    2. The state of not or no longer being confidential or secret.
      Very little information about the treaty is in the public domain.
  2. (especially US) Land regarded as owned by the public, and not subject to a land patent or other forms of private ownership (for example, unowned prairie in the southwestern and western United States).

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ “public domain, n.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, June 2018; “public domain, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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