Even though grade-school teachers have told us otherwise for years, you can copy other people's creative work and get away with it. How? By dipping into the public domain, where everything is free for the taking.

The first book of its kind, The Public Domain is the definitive guide to the creative works that are not protected by copyright and can be copied freely or otherwise used without paying permission fees.

The book explains step-by-step how to recognize when a work is in the public domain. Chapters cover:

* writings

* music

* art

* architecture

* maps

* choreography

* photography

* film and video

* computer software and databases

The book also lists hundreds of resources, such as websites, libraries and archives, useful for locating public domain works.

Destined to become a classic reference guide, The Public Domain is indispensable for anyone who deals with creative works, including publishers, web developers, writers, musicians and composers, artists, librarians, photographers and filmmakers.