What’s entering the US public domain this year? And what does that even mean?
Public domain indicates that the copyright for a given created piece of work has lapsed. But only after a rather long interval: most of these works were first protected by copyright in 1929 (and some five years earlier).
Why is this a good thing?
As this page from Duke Law states:
When works go into the public domain, they can legally be shared, without permission or fee. Community theaters can screen the films. Youth orchestras can perform the music publicly, without paying licensing fees. Online repositories such as the Internet Archive, HathiTrust, Google Books, and the New York Public Library can make works fully available online.
This helps enable both access to and preservation of cultural materials that might otherwise be lost to history.
Like which works?
The Duke Law page as well as this blog post from Internet Archive provide a partial list.
- Musical compositions (sheet music) for Singin’ in the Rain; Wedding of the Painted Doll; You Were Meant For Me; Am I Blue?; Ain’t Misbehavin’; What Is This Thing Called Love?; Bolero (and more)
- Certain sound recordings from artists including George Gershwin, Jelly Roll Morton, Fletcher Henderson and His Orchestra, and Al Jolson (and more)
- The characters Popeye and Tintin (though read this clarification)
- Too many films to list, including the newly developed “talkies” (with sound)
- And of course, loads of books and plays
Enjoy! Create!
