Watch any news program, and you’ll often hear someone reference the “public domain.” For example, one commentator recently said that “a review of these new documents suggests a coordinated effort . . . to release information to the public domain . . . .” A Congressman also stated: “Once something is in the public domain, I’m not sure you can say, ‘Let’s ignore this.” These speakers appear to equate “public domain” with “publicly available” or “publicly known.” But, to quote Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Dictionary.com defines “public domain” as a type or lack of ownership: the status of a literary work or an invention whose copyright or patent has expired or that never had such protection. land owned by the government. U.S. Copyright Law dictates that copyrighted works go…
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