What is the Public Domain?

If a work is in the public domain, it can generally be used for any purpose without violation of the copyright law. Be careful because many websites may say that they have images or other resources that are in the public domain that are actually not.

In addition to those works whose copyright has expired, many of the U.S. government resources on the Internet include works that are within the public domain. One example is the images in the Digital Library System maintained by the Fish and Wildlife Service.