To tell if something is copyrighted, start from the assumption that it is. Under U.S. law, copyright attaches automatically the moment an original work is fixed in a tangible form, with no symbol, registration, or paperwork required.1U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright in General (FAQ) From that default, you work backward: check the work itself for ownership clues, search official records if you need to confirm details, and then see whether the work might fall into one of the narrow categories that are free to use, whether the term public domain, an open license, or the fair use doctrine.
Start From the Assumption That It’s Protected
A photo taken on someone’s phone, an email, a doodle on a napkin, a blog post nobody reads — each is copyrighted the moment it exists. There is no requirement to display a © symbol, deposit a copy anywhere, or file with the government.
Before 1989, U.S. law did require a copyright notice on published works, and leaving it off could push a work into the public domain. That changed when the United States joined the Berne Convention, effective March 1, 1989. Since then, notice has been optional, which means the absence of a © symbol tells you nothing about whether a work is protected.
Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office is also voluntary. It matters for enforcement — you cannot file a federal infringement lawsuit over a U.S. work until you have registered or been refused, and registration unlocks statutory damages and attorney’s fees.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 411 – Registration and Civil Infringement Actions But the copyright itself exists whether the creator ever registers. Millions of copyrighted works never are.
What to Look for on the Work Itself
Even though notice is optional, when it appears it gives you something useful: who claims ownership and when the work was first published. A standard notice has three parts — the symbol © (or the word “Copyright” or the abbreviation “Copr.”), the year of first publication, and the owner’s name.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 401 – Notice of Copyright: Visually Perceptible Copies A typical example reads “© 2025 Jane Doe.”
Sound recordings use a separate symbol, ℗ (the letter P in a circle), which protects the recording as distinct from the underlying song or lyrics.4GovInfo. 17 USC 402 – Notice of Copyright: Phonorecords of Sound Recordings An album may carry both © and ℗ because the composition and the recording are separate works, often owned by different parties.
Look beyond visible marks too. Images and videos often carry digital watermarks that overlay ownership information onto the media. Digital files frequently include embedded metadata. Photos, for example, often have an EXIF field labeled “Copyright Notice” that identifies the owner even when nothing is visible on the image itself. You can view this metadata through your operating system’s file properties or a free online EXIF viewer.
Searching Official Copyright Records
If you want to confirm registration status or identify a rights holder, the U.S. Copyright Office maintains free, searchable public records. The Copyright Public Records System covers registration and recordation data from 1978 to the present, and you can search by title, author, or registration number.5U.S. Copyright Office. Search Copyright Records: Copyright Public Records Portal
Read the results carefully. A hit confirms the work is registered and shows you who registered it. A miss proves very little. Because registration is voluntary, an unregistered work is still fully copyrighted; it just hasn’t been catalogued. For older material, the Copyright Office also offers a Virtual Card Catalog covering registrations from 1870 through 1977, useful when you need to check whether a pre-1978 work was properly renewed.6U.S. Copyright Office. Virtual Card Catalog
Is It in the Public Domain?
A public domain work carries no copyright restrictions, and anyone can use, copy, or adapt it without permission. Whether a particular work qualifies depends on when it was published, who created it, and whether certain formalities were followed.
Age of the Work
As of January 1, 2026, everything published in 1930 or earlier is in the U.S. public domain.7Library of Congress Blogs. Lifecycle of Copyright: 1930 Works in the Public Domain The line advances one year every January 1. Works published before 1978 had a maximum term of 95 years from publication, so 1930 plus 95 lands at 2025, and those works entered the public domain the following January.
For anything created on or after January 1, 1978, the standard term is the life of the author plus 70 years. Works made for hire, anonymous works, and pseudonymous works get 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever ends first.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 302 – Duration of Copyright: Works Created on or After January 1, 1978 In practice, almost nothing made in your lifetime will expire soon.
Federal Government Works
Work created by a U.S. federal government officer or employee as part of official duties is not eligible for copyright and enters the public domain immediately.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 105 – Subject Matter of Copyright: United States Government Works That covers federal court opinions, congressional reports, NASA photos, and similar material. The federal government can, however, hold copyrights that were transferred to it, so not every file on a .gov domain is automatically free to use. State and local government works are governed by state rules that vary; some treat their publications as public domain, others assert copyright.
The 1929–1989 Missing-Notice Window
Some relatively recent works are in the public domain because their creators failed the notice rules that applied at the time. Works published between 1929 and 1977 without a copyright notice generally entered the public domain immediately. Works published between 1978 and March 1, 1989 without notice also lost protection unless the creator registered within five years. Proving a notice was absent from every published copy can be difficult, so treat this as a possibility to investigate rather than an easy assumption.
Check for a Creative Commons or Open License
Some creators keep their copyright but pre-authorize certain uses through a public license. Creative Commons is the most common framework. A CC-licensed work is still copyrighted; the license simply spells out what you’re allowed to do without asking. Look for a CC label or icon near the work, usually with a combination of these conditions:
- BY (Attribution): credit the creator.
- SA (ShareAlike): release any adaptation under the same license.
- NC (NonCommercial): noncommercial uses only.
- ND (NoDerivatives): share as-is, no modifications.
“CC BY-NC” means you can use the work if you credit the creator and don’t use it commercially. CC BY only requires attribution. CC BY-NC-ND is the most restrictive. CC0 waives all rights, functioning as a public domain dedication.
AI-Generated Material
Purely AI-generated text, images, and music are not protected by copyright, according to the U.S. Copyright Office. Copyright requires human authorship, and material produced by an AI in response to a prompt without meaningful human creative control does not qualify.10Federal Register. Copyright Registration Guidance: Works Containing Material Generated by Artificial Intelligence
Mixed human-AI works are more nuanced. When a person selects, arranges, or substantially modifies AI output, the human-authored elements can be protected; the AI-generated portions cannot. Applicants registering a mixed work must disclose which parts are AI-generated and exclude them from the claim. The Office will not accept an AI tool or its developer as author or co-author. This area is developing quickly, and courts have not fully tested the guidance, so treat AI-only material as likely unprotected while staying alert to changes.
What Copyright Doesn’t Cover at All
Copyright protects the specific expression of an idea, not the idea itself. Several categories fall outside protection entirely:11U.S. Copyright Office. What Does Copyright Protect?
- Facts and ideas, including historical dates, scientific data, and mathematical formulas. The way someone arranges or describes facts in an article can be copyrighted; the underlying facts cannot.
- Names, titles, and short phrases, including book titles, band names, and slogans. Some of these may be protected by trademark law, which is separate.
- Methods and systems, such as a process for organizing a warehouse or a recipe’s bare ingredient list. A detailed written description of the process might still be protected.
You can freely state that the Eiffel Tower was completed in 1889, but you cannot copy someone’s essay about it. You can list a dish’s ingredients but not reproduce the cookbook author’s narrative instructions.
Fair Use as a Fallback
Even a clearly copyrighted work with no open license may sometimes be used under the fair use doctrine. Fair use is not a blanket exception; it’s a defense courts evaluate case by case using four factors:12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 107 – Limitations on Exclusive Rights: Fair Use
- Purpose and character of the use. Nonprofit, educational, and transformative uses that add new meaning weigh toward fair use; commercial use weighs against it.
- Nature of the copyrighted work. Using factual works like news reports is more likely fair than using highly creative works like novels or songs.
- Amount used. Small portions favor fair use, but even a short excerpt can be too much if it captures the “heart” of the work.
- Market effect. If your use substitutes for the original and cuts into the owner’s revenue, that weighs strongly against fair use.
No factor is decisive. Two common misconceptions are worth flagging: there is no bright line for a percentage or number of seconds that’s automatically safe, and giving credit does not by itself make a use fair. Attribution is good practice, but it has no bearing on the four-factor analysis.
When You Can’t Find the Owner
Sometimes a work is clearly copyrighted but the creator is unknown, unreachable, or gone. These are called orphan works, and U.S. law has no federal orphan works statute that shields you from liability for using them.
Practical options are limited. Build the strongest possible fair use argument for your intended use. Document every step of your search so that if the owner surfaces, you can show good faith and potentially qualify as an innocent infringer for reduced damages. Some users publish a notice inviting the copyright owner to come forward. None of this eliminates the risk, but the combination of documented diligence and a defensible fair use position is the best protection available.
What’s at Stake if You Get It Wrong
A copyright owner suing for infringement can seek actual damages or statutory damages. Statutory damages run from $750 to $30,000 per work at the court’s discretion, and willful infringement raises the ceiling to $150,000 per work.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 USC 504 – Remedies for Infringement: Damages and Profits If you can show you had no reason to believe the use was infringing, the court may reduce statutory damages to as little as $200 per work. That is the practical payoff of checking copyright status, searching the records, and keeping notes of your good-faith conclusions.
Lawsuits are not the only exposure. Copyright holders can send DMCA takedown notices to platforms and internet service providers, which can pull your content offline, add a strike to your account, or eventually terminate the account for repeat violations. Takedowns do not require the owner to file a lawsuit or even register the work first.