Happy Public Domain Day

[silverscreenselect]

As one who is always on the lookout for bargains, I greet January 1 with joy every year. That's the day that U.S. copyrights expire for all works from 1928 that weren't already in the public domain. The big addition this year is Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie," the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. The second Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy, is also in the public domain now. The copyright was supposed to expire 20 years ago under then-current public law, but thanks to a bill named after Representative Sonny Bono (that one), the copyright period was extended from 75 to 95 years, the current length.

This means that anyone can now freely show Steamboat Willie and use the characters of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in their own fiction. However, the current version of Mickey (with a more rounded nose and whites around his eyes) is still protected by copyright and trademark, as is the use of "Mickey Mouse" in connection with amusement parks and many other commercial ventures.

Other notable works entering the public domain this year include:

Books and Plays

Lady Chatterley's Lover D.H. Lawrence
Threepenny Opera Bertold Brecht (original German)
Orlando Virginia Woolf
The House at Pooh Corner A.A. Milne (introduces character of Tigger)
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque (original German)
Peter Pan J.M. Barrie (although written earlier it was considered "published" for copyright purposes in 1928)
The Mystery of the Blue Train Agatha Christie
Millions of Cats Wanda Gag (the oldest picture book still in print)
The Front Page Hecht/MacArthur
Decline and Fall Evelyn Waugh
Dark Princess W.E.B. Du Bois
West Running Brook Robert Frost
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle Edgar Rice Burroughs
Coming of Age in Samoa Margaret Mead
The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall
Meet the Tiger Leslie Charteris (first appearance of The Saint)
The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club Dorothy Sayers

Movies

The Cameraman Buster Keaton
The Circus Charlie Chaplin
The Passion of Joan of Arc Carl Dreyer
Lights of New York (first all-talking feature length movie)
Should Married Men Go Home (first Laurel and Hardy team-up)
In Old Arizona (all talking with singing cowboys)
The Last Command (Emil Jannings first Best Actor Oscar winner)
Street Angel (Janet Gaynor first Best Actress Oscar winner)

Songs

Mack the Knife (German lyrics)
Animal Crackers (Marx Brothers musical songs and lyrics; the play is in the public domain; the movie is not)
Let's Do It Cole Porter
The Big Rock Candy Mountain
When You're Smiling
I Wanna Be Loved by You
Makin Whoopee
I Can't Give You Anything but Love, Baby

Also, the actual recordings of songs that were made during 1923 are now in the public domain as well. This includes the first recordings of then-popular songs like "Yes, We Have No Bananas." Subsequence recordings of the same songs, however, are not.

[vettech]

I didn't realize The Saint was that old. I would've guessed a couple of decades later.

[jarnon]

As one who is always on the lookout for bargains, I greet January 1 with joy every year. That's the day that U.S. copyrights expire for all works from 1928 that weren't already in the public domain. The big addition this year is Walt Disney's "Steamboat Willie," the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. The second Mickey Mouse cartoon, Plane Crazy, is also in the public domain now. The copyright was supposed to expire 20 years ago under then-current public law, but thanks to a bill named after Representative Sonny Bono (that one), the copyright period was extended from 75 to 95 years, the current length.

This means that anyone can now freely show Steamboat Willie and use the characters of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in their own fiction. However, the current version of Mickey (with a more rounded nose and whites around his eyes) is still protected by copyright and trademark, as is the use of "Mickey Mouse" in connection with amusement parks and many other commercial ventures.

"Last Week Tonight with John Oliver" is capitalizing on "Steamboat Willie" in the public domain.

[silverscreenselect]

Another year, another Public Domain Day. As of today, all works originally published in 1929, whose copyrights hadn't already lapsed, are in the Public Domain in the United States (rules vary according to country). Music recordings operate a bit differently, and the copyrights on any such works originally recorded in 1924 (like George Gershwin's recording of Rhapsody in Blue and Al Jolson's version of California Here I Come), are also now in the Public Domain (the music and lyrics were already in the public domain; the 1924 date applies only to specific recordings by specific artists.)

Just as Mickey Mouse entered the public domain last year, Donald Duck, Tintin, and Popeye do so this year. The copyright expiration applies only to the appearance of the characters in 1929, so Donald's current look is still protected. So too are significant story elements that didn't appear until after 1929, such as Popeye's reliance on eating spinach to boost his strength. Among the notable works this year:

Books and Plays

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
The Man Within by Graham Greene (his first novel)
Magick in Theory and Practice by Aleister Crowley (widely considered his most important work)
Magnificent Obsession by Lloyd C. Douglas
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe
Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge
Good-Bye to All That by Robert Graves
The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mahatma Gandhi
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (English translation)
Les Enfants Terribles by Jean Cocteau
Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis
Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck (his first novel)
Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett (Falcon was originally published as a magazine serial copyrighted 1929; the book version, which has some differences from the serial, was copyrighted in 1930, so those changes are still protected for one more year.)
Rope by Patrick Hamilton
A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes
Is Sex Necessary by E.B. White and James Thurber
The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie
The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen (first Queen novel)

Movies

The Cocoanuts (first Marx Brothers feature)
The Hollywood Review of 1929 (featuring Singin in the Rain)
Blackmail (Alfred Hitchock's first sound film)
Hallelujah (directed by King Vidor featuring an all-black cast)
The Broadway Melody (Best Picture Oscar winner)
Pandora's Box
Show Boat
On with the Show (first all-talking, all-color feature length film)
The Black Watch (John Ford's first sound film)
Gold Diggers of Broadway
Dynamite (Cecil B. DeMille's first sound film)

Music

SIngin in the Rain
Bolero by Ravel
Ain't Misbehavin
An American in Paris
Tiptoe Through the Tulips
Happy Days Are Here Again
Am I Blue
Waitin for a Train

Art works registered in 1929 also enter the public domain, notably Rene Magritte's The Treachery of Images (featuring a pipe).