Similar to the concept of copyright, the idea of a work being part of the public domain also varies depending on local legislation. The US and their respective international counterparts understand the terms ‘copyright’ and ‘public domain’ differently. However, a basic agreement exists – a work is considered public domain if one of the following applies:
The work is not eligible for copyright. This includes, for instance, anything that does not rely on an act of human creativity, pure facts or (by their own definition) any work created by a US government authority.
The copyright of the respective work has expired. For the US, this includes anything published anywhere around the world before January 1st, 1923.
The initial creator transferred the work into the public domain. This goes for any image licensed under the Creative Commons CC designation.
Which part of that says "steal copyrighted images, alter them slightly, then sell for a profit is legal."
Mens warehouse, amazon, walmart, and the other companies do not own their own art. Imagine that.
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