How we decide what's free
We publish a book only when we're confident it is out of copyright in Australia, where we're based, and in the United States. Every book carries a public rights record showing our working.
The Australian rules we apply
- Authors who died before 1955. Until 2004, Australian copyright lasted for the author's life plus 50 years. When the term was extended to life plus 70 on 1 January 2005, works whose copyright had already expired stayed free. So published works by authors who died before 1 January 1955 are public domain in Australia.
- Life plus 70, rolling from 2026. For authors who died in 1955 or later, copyright lasts until the end of the 70th year after their death. On 1 January 2026, works by authors who died in 1955 became free for the first time in 20 years. Each New Year's Day brings another year of authors into the public domain.
- Works published after the author died. Literary works first made public after the author's death but before 2019 are protected for 70 years from when they were first made public. (Dot and the Kangaroo was published in 1899, the year after Ethel Pedley's death; its copyright expired long ago.)
- Unpublished works. Since 1 January 2019, unpublished works no longer stay in copyright forever. Works by known authors now last for life plus 70 years.
- Everyone counts. Prefaces, introductions, illustrations and translations have their own copyright. We check every contributor, and we leave out anything that's still protected. That's why our edition of The Songs of a Sentimental Bloke is text only: its original illustrator, Hal Gye, died in 1967.
- New editions aren't new books. We use old printings or trusted volunteer transcriptions, never recent reprints. Recent typesetting can carry its own "published edition" right for 25 years.
The United States test
In the US, works published before 1 January 1931 are in the public domain. We currently require a book to be free in both countries, so it can be shared safely by readers in either place. Some books that are free in Australia are still protected in the US, such as 1930s works by authors who died before 1955. We leave those out for now.
Famous books we can't publish yet
| Author | Died | Free in Australia from |
|---|---|---|
| Ethel Turner (Seven Little Australians) | 1958 | 1 January 2029 |
| Mary Grant Bruce (the Billabong books) | 1958 | 1 January 2029 |
| Jeannie Gunn (We of the Never-Never) | 1961 | 1 January 2032 |
| Mary Gilmore | 1962 | 1 January 2033 |
| Dorothea Mackellar ("My Country") | 1968 | 1 January 2039 |
| Norman Lindsay (The Magic Pudding) | 1969 | 1 January 2040 |
| May Gibbs | 1969 | 1 January 2040 |
Some of these books are freely available on US websites because they are public domain there. They are not yet free in Australia.
Where our texts come from
- Standard Ebooks editions, which are dedicated to the public domain (CC0). We credit them on each book page.
- Project Gutenberg volunteer transcriptions. We fetch them from the project's official mirror, then remove its header, footer, licence and trademark text before re-packaging. We credit the source on our book pages. Our editions are not affiliated with or endorsed by either project.
- We don't reuse digitised page images, and we don't take text from sites whose terms don't allow it.
The checklist every book passes
- Identify the work, its first publication year and a reference for it.
- Identify every contributor (author, preface writer, editor, illustrator) and confirm their death dates from two sources.
- Apply the Australian rules above to every contributor.
- Apply the US publication-date test.
- Record the source text, its licence, the date we fetched it and a checksum.
- Strip third-party trademarks and boilerplate, and remove images.
- Check for cultural sensitivities, and add a content note.
- Record the decision. Our build refuses to publish any book whose record is incomplete.
Respect and context
Many of these books were written in the colonial era and reflect its attitudes, including towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We present them unaltered, with content notes, as historical documents. We don't reproduce traditional Aboriginal stories recorded by colonial collectors without community involvement, even where copyright has expired.
Sources for these rules
- Copyright Act 1968 (Cth), especially section 33. Attorney-General's Department, Duration of copyright table.
- National Library of Australia, How long does copyright last? and Public Domain Day 2026.
- Australian Copyright Council, Duration of Copyright. ALACC, Duration of copyright.
This page explains our approach. It is not legal advice.