January 1st is not just the beginning of the new year. This day is also called Public Domain Day.
What is Public Domain Day? It’s the day that observes when copyrighted work expires and enters into public domain. Informally, this day was first observed in 2004 by Canadian public domain activist, Wallace McLean. In 2010, a public domain website was created to list all works that go to public domain on the 1st of the year.
What determines public domain? This can be a little complicated but here it goes. All works published or unpublished are protected for 70 years for the date the author dies. So, if an author of a book dies in 1910 then January 1st of 1980 that work is in public domain. Now if a work is anonymous, pseudonymous, or work for hire then the copyright term is 95 years from the year of first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever comes first.
So, what went into public domain in 2025? Well, here are a few items that just made the list.
BOOKS AND PLAYS
Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell To Arms
William Faulkner, The Sound and the Fury
Agatha Christie, Seven Dails Mystery
Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
John Steinbeck, Cup of Gold (which is his first novel)
FILMS
The Cocoanuts, (the first Marx Brothers feature film)
The Broadway Melody (winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture)
Dynamite (Cecil B DeMille’s first sound film)
Blackmail (Alfred Hitchcock’s first sound film)
Hallelujah (one of the first films form a major studio with an all African-American cast)
CHARACTERS
Popeye
Tintin
Buck Rogers
MUSIC
Singin’ in the Rain
Ain’t Misbehavin’
An American in Paris
Tiptoe Through the Tulips
SOUND RECORDINGS FROM 1924
My Way’s Cloudy, recorded by Marian Anderson
Rhapsody in Blue, recorded by George Gershwin
Shreveport Stomp, recorded by Jelly Roll Morton
Krooked Blues, recorded by King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band featuring Louis Armstrong
You can find a complete list of all other items in these categories at Public Domain Day 2025 | Duke University School of Law. In my research I found this source to be the most comprehensive and easiest list to follow.
댓글