Every January 1st a lot of people in the US get very excited. No, not because of the holiday. They get excited because that is the day that a whole lot of new things finally enter the public domain!
I'm sure most of us have a somewhat negative view on copyright length. Copyright was originally meant to reward the author of a work for a certain period of time. I believe in the US that original period was seven years which could be renewed once to fourteen years. The idea was to give the creator of an original work some protection so they could profit from their creation, but then take that protection away to encourage them to create something else instead of just profiting off their original creation forever. The limited nature of copyright was also meant to be a reflection on the fact that things are not created in a vacuum and in fact society itself contributed to the creation, if indirectly. Due to this, after rewarding the creator for a period of time the work was designed to then enter the public domain so that everyone could benefit from it.
I'm sure opinions vary wildly, but the majority seems to be on the side of liking the system as it was originally intended. Unfortunately corporation got involved early and soon started pushing for longer and longer and longer copyright length. Disney is the worst of this, constantly bribing Congress to extend the copyright length to ensure their characters are always protected. The joke has long been that Mickey will never enter the public domain, because every time he's due to enter it, Disney will have the length extended. There is some irony that much of Disney movies are based on works from the public domain, yet they will never allow their own works to fall into it.
As things stand now in the US, copyright is 95 years. Insane. Not only could the author of a work benefit from it all their life, but their kids and grandkids could as well.
Anyway, long story short, things have started to fall into the public domain again. This year works that were created in 1927 entered the public domain. Yay!!
Anything good? Let's look at some of the biggies. Well, biggies to me. I'll post a more comprehensive list below that you can go through.
Books
The last collection of Sherlock Holmes stories entered, making all of his stories and all the characters in the public domain. Not only is this good for Holmes fans, but it's good for mystery fans in general. The Doyle estate has long been trying to artificially extend their hold over those characters, arguing that because some stories were still copyrighted, all characters were as well. Now it's all free of their hold! Get it here → The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes.
Speaking of mysteries, the first three Hardy Boys novels are entering the public domain.
The Colour Out of Space by H.P. Lovecraft also entered, as well as another one of the Winnie-the-Pooh books.
Most of these haven't been transcribed yet so you won't find them on Project Gutenberg (I looked), but I imagine they will be showing up soon enough.
Movies
The influential movie Metropolis is now in the public domain! This one already entered the public domain in 1955 due to the studio forgetting to renew the copyright (back in the days when you had to do that; these days it's not required) but later had its copyright restored. Now it's free again! I had to watch this in college for one of my film classes. I am going to watch it again to celebrate it being free! Watch it here → Metropolis
Alfred Hitchcock’s first thriller, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog is now free for all. Watch it here →
College by Buster Keaton! There were a few good silent films from our favorite slapstick actors being set free this year, including The Battle of the Century with Laurel and Hardy, and The Kid Brother with Harold Lloyd. But for my money, Keaton was the best of them. But go watch them all! Here's College]
Music
The Best Things in Life Are Free is now available for all. I'm sure you all know this song. Now you can sing it in YouTube videos or use the lyrics without worrying about the copyright police.
Puttin’ on the Ritz by Irving Berlin entered as well. This is a very catchy little tune probably best remembered these days as the song they try to get the Monster to sing in Young Frankenstein. Puttin' on the Ritz — and just to remind you, here's that scene in Young Frankenstein.
There are many many more. That's just a sample. For a more extensive list, here is a great overview from Duke University. → https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/ or
another here → https://copyrightlately.com/public-domain-day-2023/
And here's a good video that covers some more:
Enjoy!
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David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
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