The Public Domain Day Project is a collaborative project between University Libraries, the School of Music, and other units across the University, planned to celebrate Public Domain Day. With this project we hope to bring attention to works whose term of copyright protection has expired and contribute new works to the public domain.
The project highlights musical compositions that have recently entered the public domain in the United States. As public domain works, these materials are free of copyright restrictions and may be freely copied, adapted, and shared without permission. The project began in 2019, focusing on musical compositions first registered or published in the United States in 1923. Those compositions entered the public domain in the U.S. on January 1, 2019. As works continue to enter the public domain on a rolling basis, the Public Domain Day Project has expanded to include later years of publication.
Visit the project website (go.osu.edu/PublicDomainDay) to view digitized scores and new recordings of select compositions. Unless otherwise noted, new audio recordings will be dedicated to the public domain under the terms of Creative Commons (CC0) 1.0 Universal. Events, including live ensemble performances and a silent film screening, will be offered throughout 2019.
