Public Domain in Copyright

The article is devoted to the study of the legal protection of works of science, literature and art that have passed into the public domain. The grounds for the transfer of the work to the public domain, the legislative rules for calculating the duration of the exclusive right are considered. It is noted that in relation to works that have passed into the public domain, the right of authorship, the author’s right to the name and the right to inviolability of the work apply. Within the framework of the study, certain groups (types) of works that can be considered public domain are identified. For this, the authors considered the concepts of “public interest” and “public domain”. It was concluded that the public domain is an independent legal regime for works of science, literature and art, in respect of which copyright protection was terminated or by virtue of the law was not provided. The conclusion is justified that it is necessary to clarify the concept of “public domain” taking into account the development and emergence of new results of intellectual activity. The legislated possibility of using the public domain implies the obligation of users to respect the personal non-property rights of the author of the used work, which are valid indefinitely. In this regard, the point of view is supported, according to which plagiarism is not only the assignment of legally significant elements of the work of a certain author, but also of someone else’s work in general, even in cases where the author of the work is unknown. In order to preserve the public domain, it is necessary to respect the right to the inviolability of the work, since uncontrolled amendments, additions, shortenings lead to the loss of the original work. In this case, it is necessary to distinguish between unacceptable changes in the original work itself and the legitimate creation of a derivative work. It is proposed to re-estimate the concept of “public domain” and determine the legal regime of works of science, literature, art, its components, as well as clarify the duties and responsibilities of subjects using such works for commercial purposes.