On January 1st each year, Public Domain Day, new materials fall out of copyright and become free to use and adapt for anyone, without needing to clear rights or pay royalties. These include audio recordings first copyrighted in 1924, and books, films, plays, musical compositions, artwork, and characters copyrighted in 1929. In recent years, these have included the original iterations of Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse, who have featured in a plethora of new marketable for-profit works; most notoriously low-budget horror films.
This year, books like William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury have now become free to use, adapt, and sell, as well as Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, Agatha Christie’s ninth novel, The Seven Dials Mystery (not a Poirot mystery, but five with him are already in the public domain, and next year, Miss Marple will become free to use, as well), Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own, and the first English translation of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front (the original German version entered the public domain last year).
For songs, Singin’ in the Rain by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown, Tiptoe Through the Tulips by Alfred Dubin and Joseph Burke, and Happy Days Are Here Again by Jack Yellen and Milton Ager are all now free to use or remix, and include in your own work. 1929 artworks by Salvador Dalí, Henri Matisse, and Frida Kahlo are also fair game.
More characters also return to the people, as Winnie the Pooh, Hercule Poirot, and Mickey Mouse did – this year, Tintin and Popeye join the ranks of the public domain. As with those earlier characters, though, there are caveats. Characters are available to use in their iterations from their first year of publication. So Popeye, largely recognizable as he is today in the first strips from the ‘Thimble Theatre’ comic strip, is fair game; as is Olive Oyl, who preceded him in publication. His strength, rough demeanor, and stilted manner of speaking were all part of his original character (although the specific phrase “I yam what I yam and tha’s all I yam” came in 1931). Other elements and supporting characters are still protected by copyright, as are distinctive later iterations, such as the 1980 Robin Williams movie. For example, Wimpy will join Popeye in the public domain next year, and Bluto the year after that. And characters already in the public domain gain traits first published in 1929 – so Mickey Mouse can now be depicted wearing his gloves, which were not part of his earliest appearances (later iterations such as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice are still firmly copyrighted).
What all is available for you to use creatively, and how can you access it? The Duke University Center for the Study of the Public Domain has a list of the most significant of the thousands of works entering the public domain this year. Online repositories such as the Internet Archive and the HathiTrust make texts and films available to read and watch. All public-domain works can be creatively adapted, modified, repurposed and reinterpreted as you choose, and you can profit from your work. Even if you want to make a low budget horror film. Which is a fate Popeye, also, faces. And more exciting things are on the horizon, too! In addition to the aforementioned Miss Marple, January 1st, 2026 will deliver Betty Boop, Pluto the dog, and Nancy Drew into the hands of the people, as well.
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