The rules of copyright are a mess. Each poem on this site is, to the best of our knowledge, in the public domain. Very old poems are easy. The copyright status of later poems is more difficult to determine. Generally, we follow the guidance set out by Cornell to determine if a work is in the public domain. What follows is the list of copyright classifications used by People’s Poems.
— JV
- U.S. pre-1931
- Published in the United States before 1931. The copyright term has expired unconditionally.
- Foreign pre-1931
- Published outside the United States before 1931. Generally in the public domain in the U.S. as well.
- No copyright notice pre-1977
- Published in the United States between 1931 and 1977 without a copyright notice. Under the law then in effect, notice was required for protection.
- Copyright not renewed
- Published in the United States between 1931 and 1963 with a copyright notice, but the copyright was never renewed after the initial 28-year term.
- Chronicling America
- Sourced from Chronicling America, the Library of Congress's archive of digitized historical newspapers. Items from this archive are assumed to be in the public domain unless there is evidence they were syndicated or otherwise renewed.