Kevin It’s a new year, and w/ the new year comes publications and other works reaching their time to enter the public domain. New Years Day 2025 was also Public Domain Day 2025, and last year brought this into the spotlight w/ the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse.
Public Domain Day started out as an unofficial observance and grassroots initiative in the early 2000s among activists and lawyers, and it grew from there.
When works enter the public domain, it generally means that the copyright’s expired. Sometimes, works were never copyrighted in the first place, or were created before copyright was even a thing. This is why we’ve got enough adaptations of Shakespeare to choke a horse, along w/ so many adaptations of Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, and why there’ll be many more to come.
Depending on the country, the copyright lasts for the length of the author’s life, plus a certain number of years thereafter. In the US, it’s the life of the author, plus 70 years. Sometimes, more contemporary works aren’t copyrighted for whatever reason. But, according to this site, the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act allowed for a 95 year copyright term for published and/or registered works, w/ the term set to end on January 1st of the 95th year. The rule of ‘life of the author, plus 70 years’ applies to works that weren’t published or registered, and were created by individuals. For corporate works, it’s 120 years.
This year, the published works of 1929 make up the public domain class of 2025. This includes the early Popeye, Tintin, All Quiet on the Western Front, and A Farewell to Arms, in addition to the music released in 1924. If a song was recorded in 1924, but not released until 1925, then it’s still under copyright until this time next year. This site also has a list of the titles now available for us to use and draw inspiration from.
On a similar note, I should mention that while works in the public domain are ours for the taking to use and rework into something new, there are things that should be left alone. Like for instance, works w/ sus and questionable worldviews, and just as importantly, cultural origin stories like those from many indigenous Nations. Yes, these origin stories are often lumped in w/ so-called “folk tales,” or “legends,” but to those from these Nations, they aren’t folk tales or legends, but something sacrosanct and meaningful to them. There’s been adaptations and retellings of these origin stories over the years, but they seem to have been few and far between. Even though these adaptations are more obscure, these origin stories need to be left alone, or better yet, taken out of the public domain and put back into the ownership of their communities.
Over to you, readers? What will you be reading or watching out of the public domain class of 2025? It doesn’t have to be something from this year’s class, if nothing there is of interest. A great place to start your search would be the Internet Archive. I think I’ll be revisiting All Quiet on the Western Front, after having read it in college. I may also revisit Diary of a Lost Girl, and Pandora’s Box. I saw those in college, but they weren’t in the public domain at the time.
