| Reading article |
Free Content from the Public Domain - Another Beginners Introduction from a Recent Beginner |
Like most people who start trying to make money on the Internet we asked the question "what can we sell that will make money?" - and started looking around!
And boy, did we find a lot! All kinds of products, from cheap-and-cheerful and frankly really naff to the high-end expensive stuff that no doubt would sell well but is in such a competitive market sector that you would be up against the "big guns" of the Internet Marketing world. However, there is another alternative that with skill and a bit of luck can provide a rich vein of content to mine for free!
This particular resource is known as the "public domain", although in the United Kingdom where we are based the term "public domain" actually has no legal standing. However, the term serves to define content, either available online or offline, that for whatever reason is not subject to copyright and is therefore available for anyone to pick up and publish as their own work.
So how does this come about? There are several reasons, the two most common being a) that the work concerned was created long ago and the copyright it acquired at the time of creation has since expired or b) the author or creator of the work did not claim or instigate copyright when the work was first created.
Works whose copyright have expired include most works (but not all - take care!) first published before 1923. This therefore includes the works of William Shakespeare, classic literature such as the novels of Jane Austen and indeed more recent classic authors such as H G Wells. There is also a wealth of material on almost any subject you can think of, for instance 18th and 19th century textbooks concerning herbal medicine that in our 21st century would be sought after! However, where the heirs and descendants of the original author have renewed the copyright the works concerned do not fall into the public domain and such works are therefore not available for us to use. The best known example of this is the Tarzan novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs which although written before 1923 are still subject to copyright.
The second category, works not subject to copyright when created, is a much more delicate area. Most of the output of the United States Government is not subject to copyright and is therefore available to use as content. One good example is the US Government site on identity theft. In some cases the author or creator fails to establish copyright at the time, as was the case with a Hollywood studio that missed the copyright statement from the credits of a film, thereby consigning the entire work to the public domain! However, as a general rule works first published after 1923 may well be still subject to copyright and therefore off limits as far as creating products for Internet marketing are concerned.
There are many online sources of public domain content, probably the two best know being Project Gutenberg and Alibris. Project Gutenberg has over 19,000 works available in downloadable formats, most of which are in the public domain (including the works of Shakespeare and Jane Austen!), and includes a wealth of material going back several hundred years that provides a rich seam of material to mine for creating products. However, a small word of warning: Gutenberg being based in the United States has information with each work concerning its copyright status within the US but NOT in other countries around the world. While it would be a fair bet that older works would not be subject to copyright outside the US, care must be taken using US public domain material elsewhere in the world.
Public domain information is great stuff to use: you can use the works complete, adding your own preface and title, and you then have a brand new product that now carries your copyright! Alternatively you can "mix and match" information to create the product that suits your purpose. In the example earlier you could research several works on herbal medicine from previous centuries and combine the information into a new work of "Herbal Medicine Through the Ages", again acquiring new copyright in the process.
Don't forget the first rule of Internet Marketing though - check that there is a MARKET before creating or trying to sell any products! It would be crazy to create and try to market the herbal medicine product if no-one is interested in buying it! Assessing the market will be covered in a future "Beginners Introduction" article.
About the Author
For a free ebook "Ultimate Public Domain Secrets - 7 Power Tips for creating FREE E-products" visit http://www.ultimatepublicdomainsecrets.com. Nigel and Sue Barker are Exclusive Information Ltd in England and dedicated to demystifying the Internet one piece at a time. This article may be reproduced in other publications provided it is reproduced in full including URL links. If you
Article source http://w4rum.com/1709.t
|
|
| [By Skidrock] [05/May/07] |
