Join us in ringing in the new year by celebrating Public Domain Day. January 1 is the day that the copyright for some creative works expires and they enter the public domain. This means that these works may be used freely, without obtaining permission from or compensating a copyright holder.
In the United States there are two copyright laws: one is in effect for works created prior to 1978, which releases works into the public domain 95 years after publication, and a second in effect for works created after 1978, which releases works 70 years after the creator’s death. In 2024, we are welcoming literature, films, artworks, and musical compositions from 1928, and sound recordings published in 1923 into public use.
Walt Disney, “Steamboat Willie,” 1928.
One of the most anticipated works entering the public domain this year is Walt Disney’s original Mickey Mouse, which first appeared in Steamboat Willie. Other films include Edward Sedwick an dBuster Keaton’s The Cameraman, Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus, Paul Leni’s The Man Who Laughs, and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Claude McKay, “Home to Harlem.”
In the realm of literature, Claude McKay’s first novel Home to Harlem, W. E. B. Du Bois’s Dark Princess, Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography, Agatha Christie’s The Mystery of the Blue Train, and J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up have entered the public domain.
Musical compositions entering the public domain this year include an array of Broadway songs, jazz standards, and early blues compositions. Among the list are “Mack the Knife,” with lyrics by Bertolt Brecht and music by Kurt Weill, which is from The Threepenny Opera; “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” by Cole Porter, from the musical Paris; When You’re Smiling, with lyrics by Mark Fisher and Joe Goodwin, and music by Larry Shay; and “Pick Pocket Blues,” by Bessie Smith.
