Public Domain Calculator

Did you know nothing can be under copyright forever? It's true! The American Constitution says so! But determining if a work is under copyright is tricky, since corporate works are copyrighted for 95 years. You have to add 95 years to the year the work was published...it's boring, you know?

But now I've made this program to make that super easy! Just add the year it was published, and this handy software tells you when the work becomes public domain. It's only for corporate works so far. If anyone is interested, I'll update with author copyright(75 years after the author croaks)

With this tool you can make sure a character is ok to use.

If you think copyright lasting almost a century is a little stupid, we have something.g for you, too! You can also calculate when a work, would have collapsed, before powerful interests descended upon copyright, and not only stretched it 80 years, but made sure works that would have lapsed in their own time didn't. Want to know what year Gone With the Wind, Batman, and The Music of the Beatles would have lapsed when copyright was 56 years? Hit the "Change the Law" button, and find out what might have been! Find out when modern works would have lapsed!

Finally, we also have a handy macro image maker for displaying your feelings about a work's yearly lapse! After getting your date, choose from 5 images, the name of the work, and what you feel. I may update later, with more images, if there is interest.

Stay tuned, because in January, I'm making a Public Domain Rescue Jam, where I challenge you to make a game based on a Public Domain work!