Copy Right and Public Domain in 2026
It's January 1st 2026, Public Domain Day! it is the day, once a year, in the US where copyright expires! why yes! today every book, movie, art work and musical composition published in 1930 enters the public domain, 95 long long years after it first appeared. Sound recordings are governed by a different law so every sound recording made in 1925, 100 years ago! are also entering the public domain
So whats public today? so glad you asked!
That's right iconic cartoon sweet heart Betty Boop is joining us out in the public domain. HOWEVER as always, it's important to remember only stories and images of Betty (or any character) published in 1930 are free and she was a little different back then. She was a dog... no I mean the character was originally a human-poodle mix
the owners of Betty Boop, Fleischer Studios, have been very aggressive about letting it be known they feel like the original Betty is totally different and people better not touch their cash cow, so it'll be interesting to see what happens there.
Mickey Mouse got a huge amount of attention entering the public domain a few years ago, well now Mickey's dog and the first of his friends, Pluto is joining him in the public domain. But like I said only what same out in 1930 is public. Pluto appeared in two Mickey shorts that year, and in neither was called Pluto. In The Chain Gang he had no name, and in The Picnic he's "Rover" (and Minnie's dog)
Oh yes! a few years ago the Hardy Boys came into the public domain and now the girl who's very name, like Sherlock Holmes gets used as short hand for a detective, is entering the public domain. The first 4 Nancy Drew books, The Secret of the Old Clock, The Hidden Staircase, The Bungalow Mystery, and The Mystery at Lilac Inn are now public. Now! the original Nancy Drew books were all rewritten in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to make Nancy generally nicer and more 1950s suitable (though also to cut some of the 1930s racism out) those versions of the books remain copyrighted so be careful about what details you give Nancy Drew if you add her to a story.
The Three Stooges (but not Curly)
The 1930 film, Soup to Nuts would be the first film appearance by what was at the time knowns as "Ted Healy and His Stooges" They would shortly ditch Healy who kinda becomes the Pete Best of the Stooges. You might think you know The Three Stooges, Larry, Moe and Curly, but thats not the line up thats entering the public domain this year. Now, if you didn't know, Moe and Curly were real life brothers, Moe and Jerome Howard (changed from the "too Jewish" Horwitz, Larry was Larry Fine, also changed to sound less Jewish from Louis Feinberg). At first the Stooges included Moe and Curly's older brother Samuel, known as Shemp. Shemp left the group in 1932 and was replaced by his kid brother Curly. Fans likely know Shemp from his later work with the Stoogles. Curly suffered a major stroke in 1946 and Shemp stepped in and replaced him before his own death in 1955. So Larry, Shemp and Moe are now public domain, but Curly is not.
Why yes, Agatha Christie's The Murder at the Vicarage the very first appearance of Christie's iconic old maid detective Miss Marple is now public domain. So if you've always dreamed of writing a murder mystery team up book of Nancy Drew and Miss Marple, now is your moment! Though as always remember only what is in The Murder at the Vicarage is public domain. In this first outing Marple is sharper tongued and less kind than later versions of the beloved character.
More Tintin and Mickey Mouse
Last year on Public Domain Day we celebrated the first Tintin comic strips entering the public domain. However it wasn't a complete Tintin story, as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets was published weekly between 1929 and 1930. Now the rest of Land of the Soviets and the start of Tintin in the Congo have entered the public domain. But remember only what was published at the time is free, Hergé wouldn't reissue Tintin in color till the 1940s. It was a very big deal when Mickey Mouse entered the public domain two years ago. However at the time only a very little was entering, last year many more Mickey shorts came into the public domain. This year 9 Mickey shorts (Fiddlin' Around, The Barnyard Concert, The Cactus Kid, The Fire Fighters, The Shindig, The Chain Gang, The Gorilla Mystery, The Picnic, and Pioneer Days) are entering public domain bring many more details of Mickey to the public, like as I mentioned Pluto (or Rover).
Popular children's book The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper, illustrated by Lois Lenski and William H. Elson's Basic Reader, the book that taught generations of Americans to read with Dick and Jane are now in the public domain. For more grown up literature, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett parts of the book became public domain last year but now the complete book is in the public domain. William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies, and Agatha Christie's The Mysterious Mr Quin and Giant's Bread were all published in 1930 so are free and clear. T.S. Eliot's long form poem Ash Wednesday is entering the public domain. For non-fiction you have Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents (in its original German) and the philosopher Bertrand Russell's The Conquest of Happiness. Noël Coward's play Private Lives was also published in 1930. To return to children's books, The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth and illustrated by Lynd Ward, as well as Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome.
Two Academy Award for Best Picture winners, All Quiet on the Western Front directed by Lewis Milestone and Cimarron directed by Wesley Ruggles. Cimarron was released in 1931 but copyright was filed in 1930 so is now Public Domain. Hell's Angels directed by Howard Hughes the first film to star the original blonde bombshell, Jean Harlow is now Public Domain. Greta Garbo and Buster Keaton's first talkie films, Anna Christie and Free and Easy respectively, were in 1930. John Wayne’s first leading role, The Big Trail, as well as Bing Crosby’s first appearance in a film King of Jazz are public domain. Two Marlene Dietrich pictures both directed by Josef von Sternberg, The Blue Angel in German and Morocco in English where she co-stared with Gary Cooper are now free of copyright. the Marx Brothers' film Animal Crackers is also now public domain. Alfred Hitchcock's Murder! and the film L'Age d'Or directed by Luis Buñuel and co-written by the artist Salvador Dalí are also coming into public ownership.
Songs composed and published in 1930, but NOT recordings of said songs, are entering the public domain, so you are free to record your versions of the following famous toons. The Jazz standard Body and Soul, I Got Rhythm, I've Got a Crush on You, But Not for Me, and Embraceable You by Ira and George Gershwin, Georgia on My Mind, Dream a Little Dream of Me, Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight, On the Sunny Side of the Street, and You're Driving Me Crazy will all be free for artists to record this year.
This will likely shock you but the first work of television to enter public domain would happen this year, since it would be almost 20 years before the technology would come into its own. Now this one is really theoretical. In 1930 the BBC made an experimental 30 minute broadcast of a play called The Man With the Flower in His Mouth. Since the broadcast was live and at the time there was no way to record television, there's no copy of it so it's really just in theory that its public domain, but still interesting.
its always difficult to judge when a piece of art was "published" so when its copyright runs out can be tricky however here are some we know for sure
Piet Mondrian's Composition No.II
Theo Van Doesburg's Simultaneous Counter-Composition
Sophie Taeuber-Arp's Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angles
Martin Munkácsi's Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika
Edward Weston's Pepper No. 30
also the legendary Ansel Adams' photo book Taos Pueblo enters the public domain
undoubtedly the most famous piece of art from 1930, American Gothic by Grant Wood
as well as Prometheus by José Clemente Orozco will not be entering public domain this year.... because they've been in public domain since the 1950s because no one filed for copyright renewal in 1958.
If you grew up reading Sunday cartoons in the paper like I did you might be happy to hear, the original comic strip version of Blondie and Dagwood from the Blondie comic strip will be entering public domain. Fans of the strip might be shocked to find that when they started Blondie and Dagwood weren't married parents but dating young people, very different from what they'd become over the 95 year life the strip.
unlike everything else on this list recorded song is governed by a totally different law, so songs recorded in 1925 not 1930 are what is coming into the public domain today. Here's a sampling of the greatest hits of 100 years ago
Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen by Marian Anderson
The St. Louis Blues by Bessie Smith, with Louis Armstrong
Everybody Loves My Baby (but My Baby Don't Love Nobody but Me) by Clarence Williams’ Blue Five (Louis Armstrong on Cornet)
Yes Sir, That's My Baby by Gene Austin
If I Lose, Let me Lose (Mama Don't Mind) by Maggie Jones with Louis Armstrong
You've Been A Good Old Wagon by Bessie Smith
So happy Public Domain Day! if you have a favorite work entering the public domain I didn't mention feel free to reblog with additions
and remember, Copyright and Trademark are not the same thing, and its works published in the 1930, unless its a sound recording then its 1925 and all of this is US law.
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