Belated Happy Public Domain Day
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2023 9:42 am
Yesterday was Public Domain Day, the day on which U.S. copyrights expire on all works from 1927 that weren't already in the public domain. No matter when in 1927 a work was published, its copyright expired yesterday. Among the more notable works are Al Jolson's version of The Jazz Singer, the first talking film. (NOTE: Although movie and song copyrights expired, individual later performances of those works remain copyrighted. The copyright protects the performance, not the underlying work.) More notable works include:
To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle (the last book of Holmes stories that had been protected under US copyright law)
Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather
Men without Women Ernest Hemingway
The Killers Ernest Hemingway (short story filmed as a classic noir)
Mosquitoes William Faulkner
Now We Are Six A.A. Milne
The Bridge at San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
Time Regained Marcel Proust (original French version)
The Colour Out of Space HP Lovecraft
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre B. Traven
The Big Four Agatha Christie
The Tuesday Night Club Agatha Christie (the first Miss Marple short story)
The Tower Treasure F.W. Dixon (the first Hardy Boys book, revised and updated several times; the updates are still protected by copyright; the next two books in the series are also in the public domain now)
Freddie Goes to Florida Walter Brooks (the first Freddie the Pig book)
Steppenwolf Herman Hesse (original German version)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos
Movies
Metropolis
Wings (the first Best Picture Oscar winner)
Sunrise
The Lodger (Hitchcock's first thriller)
King of Kings
The Cat and the Canary
Chicago
Tarzan and the Golden Lion
7th Heaven
The Way of All Flesh (now lost)
Songs
We All Scream for Ice Cream
The Best Things in Life Are Free
Puttin on the Ritz
Funny Face
Me and My Shadow
Ol' Man River
Can't Stop Loving That Man of Mine
My Blue Heaven
Mississippi Mud
To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes Arthur Conan Doyle (the last book of Holmes stories that had been protected under US copyright law)
Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather
Men without Women Ernest Hemingway
The Killers Ernest Hemingway (short story filmed as a classic noir)
Mosquitoes William Faulkner
Now We Are Six A.A. Milne
The Bridge at San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder
Time Regained Marcel Proust (original French version)
The Colour Out of Space HP Lovecraft
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre B. Traven
The Big Four Agatha Christie
The Tuesday Night Club Agatha Christie (the first Miss Marple short story)
The Tower Treasure F.W. Dixon (the first Hardy Boys book, revised and updated several times; the updates are still protected by copyright; the next two books in the series are also in the public domain now)
Freddie Goes to Florida Walter Brooks (the first Freddie the Pig book)
Steppenwolf Herman Hesse (original German version)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos
Movies
Metropolis
Wings (the first Best Picture Oscar winner)
Sunrise
The Lodger (Hitchcock's first thriller)
King of Kings
The Cat and the Canary
Chicago
Tarzan and the Golden Lion
7th Heaven
The Way of All Flesh (now lost)
Songs
We All Scream for Ice Cream
The Best Things in Life Are Free
Puttin on the Ritz
Funny Face
Me and My Shadow
Ol' Man River
Can't Stop Loving That Man of Mine
My Blue Heaven
Mississippi Mud