Here's an Important Link For Lovers Of Public Domain!

[howudoin]

I recently found this important link for finding Public domain files from US government. It is not mentioned in the brilliant PD book by Kneb, so I thought I'll share it here for the entire community:

<Unclesam> - Google Search

Use the operator filetype (pdf) and download as many files as you want.

Bhupinder

[Brian Cook]

Nice one... thanks

[jsmith2482]

Wait, what do I put in the search engine? Do I put keyword terms for my niche?

[howudoin]

Wait, what do I put in the search engine? Do I put keyword terms for my niche?

Let's say you want to search for "weight loss" related pdf files then use the following query

filetype(Colon)pdf "weight loss"

Get busy with the downloads!!

Bhupinder

[utproducts]

Nice idea, but I'm not so sure *every* file found on there would be public domain. If I were interested in using any of these, I would look into it first.

[howudoin]

Nice idea, but I'm not so sure *every* file found on there would be public domain. If I were interested in using any of these, I would look into it first.

The copyright notice is usually included in the file itself and from my experience most of these are in the public domain. In any case they are always a good starting point for research as compared to any crappy article directory or hopping between credible sources like about.com, wikipedia, online forums and answers.com

Bhupinder

[highflyingeagle]

Thanks for the info. Found this great pdf using the search "internet marketing":
http://wsd.dli.mt.gov/local/kalispel...f/createmp.pdf

God bless,
Mark
Isaiah 40:31

[howudoin]

Thanks for the info. Found this great pdf using the search "internet marketing":
http://wsd.dli.mt.gov/local/kalispel...f/createmp.pdf

Good find Mark!!!!....There is no copyright notice in the file so I would suggest to change the content and roll out a bunch of articles for submission to EZA and other directories. Go to Clickbank marketplace and search for IM related products offering guidance in Niche research and start promoting them ASAP..........Time to milk this fat cow!

Bhupinder

[Mike Hill]

Just to let people know who may be confused as to waht is or is not in the public domain. Everything written and published by the US Government is in fact in the public domain...

Mike Hill

[tj]

Originally Posted by highflyingeagle

Thanks for the info. Found this great pdf using the search "internet marketing":
http://wsd.dli.mt.gov/local/kalispel...f/createmp.pdf

God bless,
Mark
Isaiah 40:31

The link above is state government and they have the right to copyright their creation/ work/ publications. The cited link is hosted by the Montana State Government and Kalispell is a county within Montana, so you have to check if this publication is copyrighted. Remember, everything that you write and publish is copyrighted and does not need the (C) sign. The .gov domain can be used by US federal institutions, US states, cities and counties.

Timo

[tj]

Originally Posted by Mike Hill

Just to let people know who may be confused as to waht is or is not in the public domain. Everything written and published by the US Government is in fact in the public domain...

Mike Hill

Not everything - for instance Secret Service stuff is copyright protected, and different agencies within the federal government have the right to copyright their publications.

Timo

[howudoin]

Not everything - for instance Secret Service stuff is copyright protected, and different agencies within the federal government have the right to copyright their publications.

Timo

You're right tj.........Still this link seriously slashes the research time given the fact that there are so many .gov sites that hopping from one to other for different pdf files would easily take 1 to 2 days depending upon the scope of your research.

Bhupinder

[Steven Carl Kelly]

Originally Posted by Mike Hill

Just to let people know who may be confused as to waht is or is not in the public domain. Everything written and published by the US Government is in fact in the public domain...

Not everything! Some documents do have copyright protection, specifically those created by contractors to the US Government.

[Willow]

Thanks very much for sharing that.

[Rebtl]

Another word of caution:

I don't think this search engine distinguishes between things published by the Federal Government and things published by State Governments.

It simply searches .gov websites

Anything published by a state government is fully owned and copyrighted by that state alone.

Only things published by the federal government, by a federal government employee (not a contractor) are in the public domain.


Rebtl

[Sheila]

Nice share. Great resource site. Thanks!

[vpgemini]

I for one certainly appreciate the share.

[John Rogers]

Originally Posted by Rebtl

Another word of caution:

I don't think this search engine distinguishes between things published by the Federal Government and things published by State Governments.

It simply searches .gov websites

Anything published by a state government is fully owned and copyrighted by that state alone.

Only things published by the federal government, by a federal government employee (not a contractor) are in the public domain.


Rebtl

You are correct, it does not distinguish between the two.

John

[howudoin]

Anything published by a state government is fully owned and copyrighted by that state alone.

There are exceptions to this as many a times the state also releases documents which are not copyrighted at all. In any case you can surely find a good starting point for your research by getting all the info from one single link.

Bhupinder