public domain 
noun
The state of belonging or being available to the public as a whole, especially through not being subject to copyright or other legal restrictions: we only access information available in the public domain the case came into the public domain [as modifier]: public domain software...
- This legislation would strengthen the public domain without burdening copyright owners.
- Otherwise, the work dropped into the public domain well before the copyright term would have elapsed.
- But then, just as Wells's work was about to enter the public domain, the British copyright period was extended to 70 years after the author's death.