Rejoice! Rejoice! Public Domain Day is here! We can now enjoy works created in 1928 free of the shackles of copyright! Mickey Mouse is no longer in lockdown! Tigger can bounce freely! Peter Pan can fly forth on someone else’s imagination! Constance Chatterley and Poirot can solve crimes to the tunes of Bessie Smith! Cthulhu can rise to create new nightmares! Duke University Law School’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain has a summary of the new works we can enjoy free of copyright . We provided links to some works we found at The Internet Archive , where we expect more works now in the public domain to appear.
Catch Pirate News this Sunday at 7:30pm Eastern where we will talk about Public Domain Day and all of the latest news of interest to Pirates.
VIDEO
Here is a selection of works available this year as well as links to copies of some of them from The Internet Archive . Many thanks to the Duke University Law School’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain :
Films
Steamboat Willie Plane Crazy The Cameraman Lights of New York The Circus The Passion of Joan of Arc The Singing Fool The Jazz Singer )Speedy In Old Arizona The Man Who Laughs Batman )Should Married Men Go Home?
Books
A. A. Milne, illustrations by E. H. Shepard, House at Pooh Corner (introducing the Tigger character)
J. M. Barrie, Peter Pan; or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (because it was not “published” for copyright purposes until 1928)
W.E.B. Du Bois, Dark Princess
Claude McKay, Home to Harlem
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train
Wanda Gág, Millions of Cats (the oldest American picture book still in print )
D.H Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover
Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera Die Dreigroschenoper )
Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front (in the original German, Im Westen nichts Neues )
Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness
Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall
Robert Frost, West-Running Brook
You can also check Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks for other copies.
Musical Compositions (You are free to perform them yourself!)
Animal Crackers Mack the Knife Threepenny Opera )Pick Pocket Blues Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love) Paris )Sonny Boy The Singing Fool starring Al Jolson)When You’re Smiling Empty Bed Blues I Wanna Be Loved By You Good Boy )Makin’ Whoopee! You’re My Necessity, You’re The Cream in My Coffee Hold Everything! )I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby
Sound Recordings from 1923
Charleston Yes! We Have No Bananas Who’s Sorry Now Down Hearted Blues Lawdy, Lawdy Blues Southern Blues Moonshine Blues Down South Blues Wolverine Blues Tin Roof Blues
Copyrighted works entering the public domain were put on hold by the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 , aka the the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, which extended the term of copyright from the life of the author + 50 years to life of the author + 70 years. When the term of copyright was 28 years with a 28 year renewal, 85% of copyrighted works were not renewed since the profit from the work wasn’t higher than the cost of renewal. The Center for the Study of the Public Domain notes:
"A Congressional Research Service report indicated that only around 2% of copyrights between 55 and 75 years old retain commercial value. After 75 years, that percentage is even lower. Most older works are “orphan works,” where the copyright owner cannot be found at all."
As a result, we have lost 20 years worth of films, news reels and documentaries because many of them have simply rotted away as the copyright holders didn’t have a financial incentive to digitize them and archivists couldn’t do so while the works were under copyright.
Every January 1st we get some of our culture back and we can certainly celebrate that!
Image Credit: Public Domain
Rejoice! Rejoice! Public Domain Day is here! We can now enjoy works created in 1928 free of the shackles of copyright! Mickey Mouse is no longer in lockdown! Tigger can bounce freely! Peter Pan can fly forth on someone else’s imagination! Constance Chatterley and Poirot can solve crimes to the tunes of Bessie Smith! Cthulhu can rise to create new nightmares! Duke University Law School’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain has a summary of the new works we can enjoy free of copyright. We provided links to some works we found at The Internet Archive, where we expect more works now in the public domain to appear.
Catch Pirate News this Sunday at 7:30pm Eastern where we will talk about Public Domain Day and all of the latest news of interest to Pirates.
Here is a selection of works available this year as well as links to copies of some of them from The Internet Archive. Many thanks to the Duke University Law School’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain:
Films
Books
You can also check Project Gutenberg and Standard Ebooks for other copies.
Musical Compositions (You are free to perform them yourself!)
Sound Recordings from 1923
Copyrighted works entering the public domain were put on hold by the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998, aka the the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, which extended the term of copyright from the life of the author + 50 years to life of the author + 70 years. When the term of copyright was 28 years with a 28 year renewal, 85% of copyrighted works were not renewed since the profit from the work wasn’t higher than the cost of renewal. The Center for the Study of the Public Domain notes:
"A Congressional Research Service report indicated that only around 2% of copyrights between 55 and 75 years old retain commercial value. After 75 years, that percentage is even lower. Most older works are “orphan works,” where the copyright owner cannot be found at all."As a result, we have lost 20 years worth of films, news reels and documentaries because many of them have simply rotted away as the copyright holders didn’t have a financial incentive to digitize them and archivists couldn’t do so while the works were under copyright.
Every January 1st we get some of our culture back and we can certainly celebrate that!
Image Credit: Public Domain