What is the public domain, and which books are in it?
By the 360book team · 10 October 2026 · 4 min read
Every classic on 360book carries the line “This work is in the public domain.” It is a phrase people use loosely, and the rules behind it are different in every country. This guide explains what it means, how to work out whether a book qualifies, and what you are and are not free to do with one. It is general information, not legal advice.
What the phrase means
Copyright gives an author, and later the author’s heirs or publisher, the exclusive right to copy, publish, translate and adapt a work. That right does not last for ever. When it runs out, the work enters the public domain, and from then on it belongs to everyone. Anyone may reprint it, translate it, perform it, illustrate it or turn it into a film without asking permission or paying a fee.
This is why there are dozens of editions of Pride and Prejudice and countless films about Sherlock Holmes and Dracula. Nobody owns them any more.
How long copyright lasts
In most countries the term is counted from the author’s death, to the end of a fixed number of calendar years.
- India: the author’s lifetime plus 60 years, under the Copyright Act, 1957. Rabindranath Tagore died in 1941, so his works entered the public domain in India at the start of 2002.
- United Kingdom and the European Union: lifetime plus 70 years.
- Canada: lifetime plus 70 years since the end of 2022; before that it was 50.
- United States: for older books the rule is based on the publication date instead. As of 1 January 2026, books published before 1931 are in the public domain there. Books first published from 1931 to 1977 can be protected for up to 95 years from publication, and one more year’s worth of books becomes free each New Year’s Day.
Because the terms differ, a book can be free in one country and protected in another. George Orwell died in 1950. His novels entered the public domain in India in 2011 and in the United Kingdom in 2021, but Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949, stays in copyright in the United States until the end of 2044.
How to check a particular book
- Find the year the author died. For a book with more than one author, use the one who died last.
- Add your country’s term, and remember that protection runs to the end of that calendar year.
- If you plan to publish for readers in the United States, check the year of first publication as well.
- Check the edition you are actually using, for the reasons in the next section.
The twelve classics on this site were all first published between 1813 and 1912, and the last of their authors to die was H. G. Wells, in 1946, so the original texts are free of copyright in India, the United Kingdom, the European Union and the United States.
The traps: translations, notes and new editions
Only the original work is in the public domain. Anything newer that has been added to it may still be protected.
- Translations. A translation is a new work with its own copyright, counted from the translator’s death. Tolstoy died in 1910, but an English translation of War and Peace made in 2007 is still in copyright. To publish a translated classic you need an old translation or permission. Gitanjali is an unusual case: the English version on this site is Tagore’s own translation, published in 1912.
- Introductions, footnotes and annotations written by a modern editor belong to that editor or publisher.
- Illustrations and cover art have their own copyright, counted from the artist’s death.
- Revised texts. If an author rewrote a book late in life, the later version may be protected for longer than the first.
A photograph or scan of an old printed page generally adds no new copyright in the text itself, but the safest source is a plain transcription of an early edition.
What you can do with a public-domain book
You may read it, copy it, quote it at any length, print and sell it, record it as an audiobook, adapt it into a play or write a sequel. You do not need to credit anyone, although naming the author is honest and helps your readers.
Your own additions are yours. If you write a new introduction, draw a new cover or typeset a new edition, you hold the copyright in those parts, though never in the original text. The covers and the introductions to the classics on 360book were made for this site in exactly that way.
Publishing a public-domain book on 360book
You are welcome to publish a preview of a public-domain work here, provided the text, translation and images you upload are all free to use or your own. If you add a preview of a classic, say something about why your edition is worth a reader’s time. If you believe a book on the site has been published without the right to do so, use the Report button on its page or follow the copyright process.