Understanding Public Domain

If a resource is labeled as in the public domain, it is yours to use freely. However, it helps to brush up on a few misconceptions about public domain. For example, when someone compiles, for example, a collection of works by a public domain author, the works themselves remain in the public domain, but the collector may retain a copyright to the collection as he, she, or they have presented it. This reader-friendly guide out of Stanford is quite helpful.