Selling The Knowledge Of Others

I suppose it’s possible that someone out there is unable to come up with a knowledge offering that will become a profitable product for them. That’s ok! The good news is that there are thousands of people who have knowledge products available that they will allow you to sell, and share in the profits with them. There is also lots of Free information available that you can use!

The Public Domain

Were you aware that you can sell information that is considered Public Domain? So what exactly is considered Public Domain? Wikipedia defines Public Domain as:

“The public domain comprises the body of knowledge and innovation (especially creative works such as writing, art, music, and inventions) in relation to which no person or other legal entity can establish or maintain proprietary interests. This body of information and creativity is considered to be part of the common cultural and intellectual heritage of humanity, which in general anyone may use or exploit.

If an item is not in the public domain, this may be the result of a proprietary interest as represented by a copyright or patent. The extent to which members of the public may use or exploit an item in relation to which proprietary interests exist is generally limited. However, when copyright or other intellectual property restrictions expire, works will enter the public domain and may be used by anyone for any purpose.”

Anything that is not protected by copyright, works created and published by others before 1923 and under certain circumstances, even works created up to 1978 is available knowledge that can be repackaged or republished and sold as a product offering by you. So what types of things are available in the Public Domain?

• Manuals
• Instructional Courses
• Reports
• Plays
• Music
• Photographs
• Posters

And much, much more! Sometime in the future, we’ll expand on this topic, but for now, here are some excellent places where you can get started for free!

• Wikipedia: Extensive Public Domain Image Resources
• Book’s for a Buck’s Free Book sites and Public Domain Sources
• eXtropia -free software applications (Perl and Java), free software application development tools (Perl and Java), free tutorials, and other related resources.
• Princeton Online - Public Domain Clipart
• Project Gutenberg Online Book Catalog – 17,000 eBbooks online (note: 20% royalty required on sale of eBooks obtained by you from this website).
• Google Print - Collection of Public Domain Books from Libraries at University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, and the New York Public Library - How does Google Print work? Just do a search on the Google Print homepage. Google will find a book whose content contains a match for your search terms and link to it in your search results. Just click a book title and you'll see the page of the book that has your search terms, along with other information about the book and "Buy this Book" links to online bookstores (you can view the entirety of public domain books or, for books under copyright, just a few pages or in some cases, only the title’s bibliographic data and brief snippets). You can also search for more information within that specific book and find nearby libraries that have it.
• Public Domain Music & Sheet Music - Classical Piano Sheet Music, MySheetMusic.com, Orchestra Sheet Music, Pubilc Domain Music Works (subscription required), Public Domain Music and Performances & pdinfo.com- A website dedicated to public domain music topics which offers a number of resources, a list of 3,500+ songs in the public domain, and a brief tutorial specifically on using musical works in the public domain.
• http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm- Offers a concise summary chart of the dates involved with determining if a work falls into the public domain.
• http://www.copyright.gov/- the U.S. Government site that offers a complete guide to copyright and copyright issues. Also includes a searchable database to determine if a work's copyright was renewed.

Don’t see something above that you’re interested in? Just Google:

“Public Domain”

and the word of the item of interest. If it’s public domain, you’ll find it!