By Connor Dillingham
We’ve discussed many works of fiction that are available in the public domain, which have mainly been novels. However, while we have discussed stories that are in the public domain, what we have not discussed concepts that are in the public domain. Now, this can be a very broad description, as pretty much everything that isn’t copyrighted can be public domain; swords, cars aliens, ect. So, for simplicity, I will be discussing fantastical concepts that exist within the public domain, concepts that can only exist in fiction.
And there are many of these types of concepts. One would be various fantasy species that exist in a lot of speculative fiction: vampires, werewolves, dragons, ect. These creatures exist in many fantasy stories across several mediums, and even a few science fiction ones that are creative with the concept. These creatures have often been depicted similar in many works, vampires are often being depicted as being burned by the sun, werewolves can only emerge during the full moon, and dragons are winged reptiles capable of breathing fire. However, each individual Work can often show put their own spin on the the creature. For example, in most media, dragons are depicted with six limbs; front legs, back legs, and a pair of wings. However, a good number of of works, such as the popular series Game of thrones, depict dragons as only having four limbs, back limbs and a pair of wings, making their dragons more like wyverns. Now, there isn’t a wrong way to depict fantastical creatures, but this does show how different works can interpret public domain concepts differently.
Another public domain species that pretty much anyone can use, are werewolves. One of the biggest differences that werewolves have that help make them stand out from other fantasy species is that werewolves have rules. These rules are ones that pretty much everyone is at least somewhat familiar with: werewolves are people that can transform into wolves, they can only transform under a fill moon, and they can only be killed by silver. However, these rules can be interpreted differently by creators, or even disregarded all together. For example, while werewolves are people that can transform into wolves, what their wolf form looks like can differ from each interpretation. Sometimes werewolves can look bipedalism half-man, half wolves, sometimes they can look like a man completely covered in fur, and sometimes they can just look like an an extremely large, normal looking wolf. It all depends on what the creator wants to do with them.
However, what about when someone creates a concept for their own work, and then puts that concept in the public domain with the specific goal that other writers will use it in their work? That is the case with Retrosaurs. For the probably many of you that don’t, Retrosaurs are a fictional species of monsters that were like if dinosaurs evolved from crocodiles instead of birds, and are based around many outdated theories and misunderstandings that scientists and people once once had of dinosaurs. Some of these theories include that dinosaurs stood up straight, dragging their tails, and that pterosaurs and prehistoric marine reptiles, such plesiosaurs and mosasaurs, actually dinosaurs and not only distantly related to them. Retrosaurs were originally created by William David Cope for his novel Tyrantis Walks Among Us, and were created due to what we know of dinosaurs constantly changing as scientist make new discoveries, and thus making depictions of dinosaurs made before the discovery outdated.
These are just a few of the concepts that are in the public domain. Keep in mind, that I have only talked about creatures that can exit in fantastical works, when there are so much more that can exist in the public domain, such as swords, wizards, sorcerers, mechs, starships, and so much more. The limits for concepts that you can use from the public domain are almost endless.
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