I have been interested in do it yourself plans for a long time. Over the course of many years I have searched for and accumulated plans required to build things that I either wanted, or in fact needed. Well before the the start of the internet I realised that many kinds of building plans were to be found in older copies of magazines including Science And Mechanics, Mechanix Illustrated and various other magazines of this type.
Over a period of years I accumulated a collection of hundreds of old DIY plans from these sources. Later I did some research on the "public domain" and I discovered to my delight that the vast majority of old plans and articles, in these magazines, which were first published prior to the year 1964 were actually now copyright expired, and were in the public domain.
Their copyright had never been renewed prior to the expiry date of 28 years from date of publication. All media published in the United states of America, in the years from 1923 to 1964 had a copyright term of 28 years from the date of first publication. This copyright was required to be renewed in the 28th year after puiblication or the copyright expired at that point, and the material entered the public domain. The copyright was not renewable by anyone after entering the public domain. It is also a fact that everything which was published in the United States of America prior to the year 1923 is also, without exception, in the public domain.
To put it simply this means that this material is not in copyright anymore and can be used by anyone for whatever purpose they wish. This applies to audio and video materials as well as to printed matter. This public domain material can be republished and copied or resold, in any form, by anyone whatsoever.
The material can not be copyrighted in the original form, but it is possible to copyright a new version if "significant changes" have been made to the original. In the year 1964 copyright laws were rewritten in the United States, and material published after that year remains in copyright for much longer in the vast majority of cases. It should be noted however that some publications up to 1978 are in the public domain.
To avoid becoming involved in copyright problems it is best for most people to republish only those items which were first copyrighted before 1964, and which are quite definitely in the public domain, which has been established by checking the records of the US copyright office. This copyright check can be carried out online.
For all materials copyrighted prior to 1923 it is not necessary to do a copyright renewal check since pre 1923 items are universally in the public domain. If you should find an interesting item is which was published between 1923 and 1964 a simple free check with the US Copyright Office can be performed online, and this will establish beyond any doubt that it is in fact copyright expired and therefore is available in the public domain.
Publications which go back for years before the 1923 cutoff date can be found online and can be downloaded at a number of websites including and others. Carrying out search engine search for the words "public domain" will find a number of websites where material is available for download and is often free for the taking. Some really great do it yourself plans are also available for downloading from internet sources.
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