Public Domain Check: MCP server
Is this book, film, song or artwork in the US public domain, and when does it enter it? This MCP server answers that question for AI agents. It's backed by:
- 2.38 million US Copyright Office registrations (1923–1977)
- 434,000 renewal records, linked to their registrations
- the US copyright term rules
Paid tools cost a few cents per call, paid in USDC through x402. There's no account or API key.
Tools
You're never charged when a request is invalid or the service needs more information.
Brief answers by default. check_public_domain returns a short answer: the status, the date, the confidence, a one-line reason, and the record IDs. That's about 80% fewer tokens for your agent to read. For the complete reasoning and records ($0.02), pass format: "full" (local wrapper) or call check_public_domain_full (remote MCP).
Use it
Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, and other MCP clients
Add this to your MCP config:
WALLET_PRIVATE_KEY is the private key of a wallet that holds a little USDC on Base. Use a dedicated wallet with a few dollars in it, not your main wallet.
- Without a key, the free tools still work.
MAX_PRICE_PER_CALL is a hard cap, in US dollars, enforced on your machine. The wrapper refuses any call that costs more.
Agents with built-in x402 support
These include @x402/mcp, Coinbase AgentKit, and other x402-aware frameworks. Connect to the remote URL above. Paid tools return an x402 payment request, and your client pays it and retries.
Example answer
Data and limits
- Sources: US Copyright Office records from the Catalog of Copyright Entries, plus renewal records. Both were transcribed by the New York Public Library and released under CC0.
- Coverage: US law in full, plus term rules for the UK, EU, Canada, Australia, Japan, China and India (pass
countries). The answers are informational, not legal advice.
License
MIT