Public-Domain Reckoning — When a Piece Is Free to Use

Public domain is not "old" but "expired" — four gates to check

"Is this song public domain?" — do not search for a "copyright term table" first. Pass these four gates, in order; each can flip the answer.

(An outline of rules, not legal advice; check current law or consult a professional before real use.)

Gate one: which layer?

Ask first: do you need the work (song) or a particular recording? — two independent clocks (see how many rights live in one song).

The classic misjudgement: "old tune = free everything". What is free is the composition; a specific recording's term is counted separately.

Gate two: who is the author, when did they die?

Natural-person authors: anchored to the year of death (+50 in China, +70 in the US/EU);
Joint works: anchored to the last surviving author;
No traceable author (anonymous, folk): handled via publication/circulation rules — and "authorship" in folk music is a subject of its own (see folk variants).

Gate three: in which country?

Terms are territorial: the same work may be free in one country and protected in another. Publishing across borders (a globally visible website, say) means judging by the principal place of use — sometimes by every place it can be seen. The safe design: assume the longest term.

Gate four: using the "work" or using a "version"?

Using the work (re-performing, adapting, printing): gates one to three suffice;
Using a version (copying a specific edition's typesetting, a specific recording): also check that version — editorial work, engraving, "restorations" may each carry new rights.

This is the onion: around a free work may wrap an edition, a recording, an arrangement — each with an owner.

After the gates, two reminders

1. Attribution and integrity are protected without term limits under Chinese law — public domain does not mean you may drop the author's name or distort the work; 2. Entry takes effect at year's end (Chinese rule: 31 December of the 50th year) — not to the day.

Listen: the public domain's base bricks

Free material is like a scale: the most basic, and the most alive — everything can grow on it.

The arithmetic of duration: copyright duration.
Freeing a work that still has an owner: the CC licence family.
The tradition of creating from free material: Melody.

Listen in the library

Chorale BWV 113/8C10:28A chorale — free material to adapt, print and re-record (duties noted in the text)DetailsDoamne ocroteste-i pe romaniC11:48A work across borders — free or protected by the place of use; one piece, two answersDetailsHe Took My Feet from the Miry ClayC10:36"He took my feet from the miry clay" — a spiritual's many hands and layered versionsDetails

All tracks from midicn-lib — inline badge is the license tier (C1 commercial / C2 non-commercial / C3 study only).

Sources

本文为公版判定的通行规则清单，中国期限条款与各国差异以现行法律为准，不构成法律意见
涉及的曲目均标注来源与许可档位，可在线试听

Used for fact-checking only; all prose is original.

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