Product Creation Part 3

Today may very well be the most important day of this course. We aren't covering any special 'tricks' or marketing insights. Instead, we're on the hunt for content.

No content = no product.

Sourcing Content

The quickest and cheapest way to source content is to go into the public domain. Before we discuss public domain requirements, here is a short list of sites to add to your favorites:

http://www.archive.org/
http://www.creativecommons.org/
http://www.promo.net/pg/
http://www.blackmask.com/

So, what can you find in the public domain? Anything!

You'll find texts, audio, images, stock video, software and everything under the sun. A large portion of this material is "fair use", but be forewarned that not all of it is free of copyright protection. At Creative Commons, for example, there are new works being entered under a public license, so there will be some restrictions on those works.

Let's talk about 'fair use' for a moment.

The Fair Use Doctrine was not a part of the original copyright law, but was drafted through numerous court decisions and finally codified in Section 107 of the copyright law. This establishes the rights of other to work with copyrighted material. It's important to be aware of this because you need to understand the rights granted to you by the public domain and the limitations you might encounter if the copyright status of a work you find is in question.

Not all of the works entered into the public domain database are free and clear of restrictions.

Here are 'four factors to be considered in determining whether the use of a work is far', according to the law:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;

2. The nature of the copyrighted work;

3. Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and

4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

These guidelines will assist you if any work you encounter during your search happens to have some restrictions on it - or if you find that you need additional content and can't find anything in the public domain to fill in the gaps.

It's best to just bypass anything that isn't fully public domain, but I've included this here in case you encounter a unique case during your search.

Now, for the definition of public domain - you'll find that many sites refer to materials as "primarily public domain". This is legal maneuvering which is intended to give a nod to the possible restrictions we mentioned before. A true public domain work is information open to the public for free use, including copying, distributing and modification free of charge.

When do works pass into the public domain?

Currently, works published seventy-five years ago are considered to be public domain. Works published from 1924-1963 may be public domain if the copyright was not renewed. Anything else should be considered protected under the law.

What can you do with public domain material? Anything! You can claim entire texts, reformat them and publish them as e-books. You can use public domain texts as bonuses. You can build web sites and products around them. For example, take a look at www.scienceofgettingrich.net.

This entire site was based upon the public domain work by Wallace Wattles called "The Science of Getting Rich". It has spawned a plethora of copycat marketers who went out and find additional public domain works related to the subject of prosperity and new age manifestation techniques.

I recommend hitting the major archives I listed at the beginning of this lesson during your first search.

There is a lot to wade through at these sites and you'll be wise to familiarize yourself with the navigation, search functions and general availability of subjects.

If you can't find exactly what you're looking for at the above sites, then you can use a Google search to ferret out more resources. Type in whatever you're looking for and tack a +"public domain" onto the search.

Meanwhile , here are some additional, niche-related sites with public domain material:

http://www.pdimages.com
http://www.pdmusic.org
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/books