Public Domain: Everyone's Cultural Heritage

To speak of the public domain is to speak of free access to knowledge, shared culture and open innovation. The concept has become a key piece in understanding how information circulates and how the common heritage of humanity is built.

In this post we will explore what the public domain means and show you examples of repositories where you can discover and enjoy works that are already part of everyone.

What is the public domain?

Surely at some point in your life you have seen the image of Mickey Mouse  Handling the helm on a steamboat. A characteristic image of the Disney company that you can now use freely in your own works. This is because this first version of Mickey (Steamboat Willie, 1928) entered the public domain in January 2024 -be careful, only the version of that date is "free", subsequent adaptations do continue to be protected, as we will explain later-.

When we talk about the public domain, we refer to the body of knowledge, i nformation, works and creations (books, music, films, photos, software, etc.) that are not protected by copyright. Because of this , anyone can reproduce, copy, adapt and distribute them without having to ask permission or pay licenses. However,  the moral rights of the author must always be respected, which are inalienable and do not expire. These rights include always respecting the authorship and integrity of the work*.

The public domain, therefore, shapes the cultural space where works become  the common heritage of society, which entails multiple benefits:

• Free access to culture and knowledge: any citizen can read, watch, listen to or download these works without paying for licenses or subscriptions. This favors education, research and universal access to culture.
• Preservation of memory and heritage: the public domain ensures that an important part of our history, science and art remains accessible to present and future generations, without being limited by legal restrictions.
• Encourages creativity and innovation: artists, developers, companies, etc. can reuse and mix works from the public domain to create new products (such as adaptations, new editions, video games, comics, etc.) without fear of infringing rights.
• Technological boost: archives, museums and libraries can freely digitise and disseminate their holdings in the public domain, creating opportunities for digital projects and the development of new tools. For example, these works can be used to train artificial intelligence models and natural language processing tools.

What works and elements belong to the public domain, according to Spanish law?

In the public domain we find both content whose copyright has expired and content that has never been protected. Let's see what Spanish legislation says about it:

Works whose copyright protection has expired.

To know if a work belongs to the public domain, we must look at the date of the death of its author. In this sense, in Spain, there is a turning point: 1987. From that year on, and according to the intellectual property law, artistic works enter the public domain 70 years after the death of their author. However, perpetrators who died before that year are subject to the 1879 Law, where the term was generally 80 years – with exceptions.

Only "original literary, artistic or scientific" creations that involve a sufficient level of creativity are protected, regardless of their medium (paper, digital, audiovisual, etc.). This includes books, musical compositions, theatrical, audiovisual or pictorial works and sculptures to graphics, maps and designs related to topography, geography and science or computer programs, among others.

It should be noted that  translations and adaptations, revisions, updates and annotations; compendiums, summaries and extracts; musical arrangements, collections of other people's works, such as anthologies or any transformations of a literary, artistic or scientific work, are also subject to intellectual property. Therefore, a recent adaptation of Don Quixote will have its own protection.

Works that are not eligible for copyright protection.

As we saw, not everything that is produced can be covered by copyright, some examples are:

• Official documents: laws, decrees, judgments and other official texts are not subject to copyright. They are considered too relevant to public life to be restricted, and are therefore in the public domain from the moment of publication.
• Works voluntarily transferred: The rights holders themselves can decide to release their works before the legal term expires. For this there are tools such as the license Creative Commons CC0 , which makes it possible to renounce protection and make the work directly available to everyone.
• Facts and Information: Copyright does not cover facts or data. Information and events are common heritage and can be used freely by anyone.

Europeana and its defence of the public domain

Europeana is Europe's great digital library, a project promoted by the European Union that brings together millions of cultural resources from archives, museums and libraries throughout the territory. Its mission is  to facilitate free and open access to European cultural heritage, and in that sense the public domain is at the heart of it. Europeana advocates that works that have lost their copyright protection should remain unrestricted, even when digitized, because they are part of the common heritage of humanity.

As a result of its commitment, it has recently updated its Public Domain Charter, which includes a series of essential principles and guidelines for a robust and vibrant public domain in the digital environment. Among other issues, it mentions how technological advances and regulatory changes have expanded the possibilities of access to cultural heritage, but have also generated risks for the availability and reuse of materials in the public domain. Therefore, it proposes eight measures to protect and strengthen the public domain:

1. Advocate against extending the terms or scope of copyright, which limits citizens' access to shared culture.
2. Oppose attempts to undue control over free materials, avoiding licenses, fees, or contractual restrictions that reconstitute rights.
3. Ensure that digital reproductions do not generate new layers of protection, including photos or 3D models, unless they are original creations.
4. Avoid contracts that restrict reuse: Financing digitalisation should not translate into legal barriers.
5. Clearly and accurately label works in the public domain, providing data such as author and date to facilitate identification.
6. Balancing access with other legitimate interests, respecting laws, cultural values and the protection of vulnerable groups.
7. Safeguard the availability of heritage, in the face of threats such as conflicts, climate change or the fragility of digital platforms, promoting sustainable preservation.
8. To offer high-quality, reusable reproductions and metadata, in open, machine-readable formats, to enhance their creative and educational use.

Other platforms to access works in the public domain

In addition to Europeana, in Spain we have an ecosystem of projects that make cultural heritage in the public domain available to everyone:

• The National Library of Spain (BNE) plays a key role: every year it publishes the list of Spanish authors who enter the public domain and offers access to their digitized works through BNE Digital, a portal that allows you to consult manuscripts, books, engravings and other historical materials. Thus, we can find works by authors of the stature of Antonio Machado or Federico García Lorca. In addition, the BNE publishes the dataset with information on authors in the public domain in the open air.
• The Virtual Library of Bibliographic Heritage (BVPB), promoted by the Ministry of Culture, brings together thousands of digitized ancient works, ensuring that fundamental texts and materials of our literary and scientific history can be preserved and reused without restrictions. It includes digital facsimile reproductions of manuscripts, printed books, historical photographs, cartographic materials, sheet music, maps, etc.
• Hispana acts as a large national aggregator by connecting digital collections from Spanish archives, libraries, and museums, offering unified access to materials that are part of the public domain. To do this, it collects and makes accessible the metadata of digital objects, allowing these objects to be viewed through links that lead to the pages of the owner institutions.

Together, all these initiatives reinforce the idea that the public domain is not an abstract concept, but a living and accessible resource that expands every year and that allows our culture to continue circulating, inspiring and generating new forms of knowledge.

Thanks to Europeana, BNE Digital, the BVPB, Hispana and many other projects of this type, today we have the possibility of accessing an immense cultural heritage that connects us with our past and propels us towards the future. Each work that enters the public domain expands opportunities for learning, innovation and collective enjoyment, reminding us that culture, when shared, multiplies.

*In accordance with the Intellectual Property Law, the integrity of the work refers to preventing any distortion, modification, alteration or attack against it that damages its legitimate interests or damages its reputation.