Some works enter the public domain the moment they are created, such as the AI-generated images below. Others take their sweet time, so when they finally do arrive, it’s cause for celebration.
Hence, Public Domain Day. This is when, on January 1 of every year, we celebrate copyrights expiring and a fresh batch of works becoming free for anyone to tinker with. For example, on January 1, 2025, the copyright terms ended for thousands of works from 1929 and song recordings from 1924. These works are now in the public domain, meaning that after 95 years or so1 of being “off limits,” they are finally fully available for everyone to access and use for any purpose, without authorization. This includes the comic debuts of Popeye2 and Buck Rogers, novels by William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway, art by Salvador Dali, songs like “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Singin’ in the Rain,” and the first sound recordings of “Rhapsody in Blue.” As a result, there are already three Popeye-themed horror movies on the way, including Popeye the Slayer Man.
Public Domain Day is a relatively new concept. While the holiday has been discussed since at least 2004, it only gained significance in the United States in 2019 when works started entering the public domain for the first time since the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act’s 20-year public domain “freeze.” And many notable works have entered the commons in recent years. For example, 2019 had a Charlie Chaplin film and Agatha Christie novel; 2020 featured the sheet music for George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and a Buster Keaton silent comedy film; 2021 saw The Great Gatsby and “Sweet Georgia Brown”; 2022 included books about Winnie-the-Pooh and Bambi; and 2023 had an Alfred Hitchcock film, a Virginia Woolf novel, the first three Hardy Boys books, and the last Sherlock Holmes short stories. And, of course, Public Domain Day 2024 was momentous because the first incarnations of Mickey and Minnie Mouse entered the commons through works like Steamboat Willie.
Ultimately, what Public Domain Day lacks in holiday seniority, it makes up for in the ideals it celebrates — including newfound access to aspects of our creative inheritance that otherwise might be lost to history. Indeed, one of the reasons copyright protections exist in the first place is to incentivize creation to ensure a well-stocked public domain from which future generations may draw to create even more works. It’s like a “vicious circle,” but in a good way (a “benevolent oval,” perhaps?). Public Domain Day honors one stage of this cycle. It’s up to us to complete the other stages by using the rich cultural heritage found in our public domain to create new works that entertain and challenge for posterity as part of an unbroken chain of inspiration going back thousands of years. And yes, this even includes making slasher films based on beloved characters. After all, the meaning of art is not limited to what the artist intended any more than children are beholden to their parents’ wishes once they leave home to make their way in the world.
[1] The precise copyright term length depends on several factors. Generally, works published before 1978 are protected for 95 years. Works by natural persons created before 1978 but never published have a copyright term of life-of-the-author-plus-70 years. And works by natural persons created after 1978 are also protected for the life-of-the-author-plus-70 years. In addition, sound recordings have their own rules. For example, sound recordings first published between 1923 and 1946 have 100-year terms. Of course, these term lengths are only applicable to the United States as other countries have different copyright protection windows.
[2] Where fictional characters “evolve” over time, courts have found that a copyrighted character falls into public domain along with the first published story featuring that character, though aspects of the character’s development that appear in later works that are still under copyright remain protected from public use. This affects how characters like Popeye and Mickey Mouse may be used at present.
