Public Domain Guide
What is public domain footage?
It is footage that is not in copyright and does not require permission to use it from a copyright holder. Public domain footage is therefore exempt from the expensive per second royalty rates charged for licensing stock footage.
These are some of the common ways footage can enter the public domain…
- In general, works that are created by American government agencies (and therefore funded by the taxpayer) are not eligible for copyright and are thus public domain.
- Copyrighted works can enter the public domain through gift to the government from the institution that owns the copyright.
- Films can become free of copyright when the copyright term has expired. In America the term for published works is 95 years, so as of 2026 anything published in 1930 or before is in the public domain.
While films in the public domain are exempt from copyright they are not free from the usual permissions required for third party elements that may apply. Some examples of these are music, personal image rights (usually in relation to commercial exploitation), trademarks, logos and artworks.
This information should be treated as a guide and should not be considered legal advice.
The collections used on Access Footage
US Military Collections
US Army, US Navy, US Air Force, US Marines, United News
Films in these collections cover all wartime activities including the planning, preparation and combat footage for WW2 European and Pacific Theaters, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Generally all footage within these collections is filmed by employees of the American government and is considered public domain.
WW2 era US Government Collections
Department of Defense, Office of War Information, War Department, Office of Civilian Defense, OSS
These were government agencies in existence during WW2, many of whom produced informational and propaganda films for the American public on the conflict and home front situation.
Ford Motor Company
This collection consists of 1.5 million feet of film created by the Ford Motor Company between 1914–1954 as a way to educate and inform its employees and the public on a wide range of topics such as car manufacturing, WW1, and American life and culture. The collection was donated to the National Archives in 1963 and is part of their RG 200 Gifts Collections.
Military Intelligence Division Foreign Seized Records
Films in this collection were seized by the American Military Intelligence Division during WW2. On the whole these films were created by enemy governments such as Japan and Germany, and copyright therefore should be looked at on a case by case basis. In the past, use of this collection for documentary purposes has been unproblematic with no known copyright claims by foreign governments.
US Information Agency
The USIA ran from 1953 to 1999 with the remit to promote the activities of the US government overseas. The scope of this collection is large and contains films on American politics, culture and the arts.
Signal Corps H Series
This series dates from 1914 and is mainly made up of films shot by the US Army Signal Corps during the First World War and its aftermath.
CBS Stock Footage Collection
Footage in this collection is largely made up of WW1 footage accumulated for the CBS World War One documentary series released in 1964. Footage from this period is out of copyright, it has expired.
March of Time Outtakes Collection
The March of Time was an American newsreel that ran from 1935 to 1951. Its vast collection of outtakes was donated to the National Archives in 1974 and remains an invaluable source of stock footage for this period. The edited newsreels are in copyright and are housed elsewhere.
Universal Newsreel Collection
Universal Newsreel ran from 1929 to 1967 covering major news and human interest stories from around the world. The collection contains both the edited newsreels and the outtake collection of raw camera footage. It resides in the RG 200 Gifts Collections at NARA and is a valuable source of news and stock footage for this period.
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is a government agency responsible for civil space exploration, aeronautics research, and scientific discovery. It has extensively filmed its missions for internal use and as a way of promoting its activities. Footage tends to include not just the mission footage but also the construction of space vehicles and preparation of astronauts. NASA themselves keep their own film and tape archive as well as housing copies at the National Archives.