What condition ensures that content is freely available for use without copyright?

The condition that ensures content is freely available for use without copyright is known as the public domain. When works are in the public domain, it means that they are not protected by copyright law, allowing anyone to use, distribute, and modify them without seeking permission or paying royalties. This can occur either because the copyright has expired, or because the creator voluntarily relinquished their rights to the work.

Open access typically refers to a model where academic and research outputs are made available online free of cost or other access barriers, but the content might still be under some form of copyright or licensing agreement. Proprietary licenses grant specific rights to the user while maintaining ownership under copyright, meaning users cannot freely use the content. Intellectual property is a broad term that encompasses legal rights to creations of the mind, which includes copyrighted works, but does not equate to having free access. Thus, public domain is the key term that directly signifies freedom from copyright restrictions.