Movies, Music, and Books That Enter the Public Domain Today

[Pickle Dick]

Movies, Music, And Books That Enter The Public Domain Today

Today isn’t just a day to nurse your hangover from New Year’s Eve—it’s also a day to celebrate the public domain. Movies, books, music, and more from 1924 are all entering the public domain today, meaning that you’re free to download, upload, and share these titles however you see fit. And it’s...

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Movies, Music, and Books That Enter the Public Domain Today

archived 2 Jan 2020 01:49:08 UTC

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Today isn’t just a day to nurse your hangover from New Year’s Eve—it’s also a day to celebrate the public domain. Movies, books, music, and more from 1924 are all entering the public domain today, meaning that you’re free to download, upload, and share these titles however you see fit. And it’s completely legal.

Some titles from 1924, like the movie The Thief of Baghdad, already entered the public domain because there were stricter rules about registering copyright before the 1970s. If a copyright holder forgot to renew a copyright or put a mandatory copyright notice on their work, it could slip into the public domain accidentally.

But there are plenty of other works that finally lose their copyright-protected status on January 1, 2020, like classic movies from silent-era comedians Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd. There are also books from Thomas Mann and E. M. Forster, and an English translation of We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, a pioneering dystopian science fiction novel from the Soviet Union.

Even George Gershwin’s song “Rhapsody in Blue,” one of the most famous songs of the 20th century, finally becomes public domain today. While the list below, inspired by the work of Duke Law’s Center For the Study of the Public Domain and the Public Domain Review, may not be comprehensive, it’s a good place to start.

If something was published in 1924 or earlier, it’s no longer protected by copyright as of today. And if you’re waiting for stuff from 1925 to become public domain you have to wait exactly one year. January 1, 2021 isn’t so far away.

Movies

• Sherlock Jr. starring Buster Keaton
• The Navigator starring Buster Keaton
• The Iron Horse directed by John Ford
• Girl Shy starring Harold Lloyd
• Hot Water starring Harold Lloyd
• He Who Gets Slapped starring Lon Chaney
• Peter Pan (1924 version)
• Captain January starring Baby Peggy
• America directed by D.W. Griffith
• Greed directed by Erich von Stroheim
• The Sea Hawk directed by Frank Lloyd
• Waxworks directed by Paul Leni

Music

• “Rhapsody in Blue,” by George Gershwin
• “Fascinating Rhythm,” with music by George Gershwin, lyrics Ira Gershwin
• “Nobody’s Sweetheart,” with music by Billy Meyers and Elmer Schoebel, and lyrics by Gus Kahn and Ernie Erdman
• “Lazy” by Irving Berlin
• “Jealous Hearted Blues,” by Cora “Lovie” Austin (composer, pianist, bandleader)
• “Santa Claus Blues,” by Charley Straight and Gus Kahn

Books

• Tarzan and the Ant Men by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie
• The Dream by H. G. Wells
• Hay Fever by Noël Coward
• When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne
• A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
• The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
• Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville
• Hotel Savoy by Joseph Roth

And while it’s fantastic that these works have finally entered the public domain, Duke Law also has a blog post about the things that could have entered the public domain today if the copyright laws that existed until 1978 didn’t get radically extended.

Just imagine. If copyright law hadn’t become so warped, movies like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and Disney’s The Sword in the Stone would be free to use as you like. What a world.

IMO, I don't think this list of things now in public domain is impressive, although I am amazed it took both "When We Were Very Young" and "Rhapsody in Blue" so long to enter it.

 

[MediocreMilt]

“Rhapsody in Blue,” by George Gershwin

HAHAAA!

Suck it, United.

 

[Coolio55]

Actually, Peter Pan has some arcane copyright attatched to it.
In the UK the character Wendy has ETERNAL copyright (Cry some fucking more Disney. You'll never reach this jewy) as the author donated it to Great Olmond's Street which is a children's hospice with (((Government Connection))).
Also so does the King James bible (Although that one technically makes sense considering it was commisioned by the king himself)


Also, in two years we'll be getting more significant (Good un-americanized) Winnie the Pooh content dropping. FUCK YES.

 

[tehpope]

Very surprised to see Greed enter the public domain. I don't think its had an official DVD/Bluray release. Maybe now the lost 8 hour cut will surface. XD. I guess MGM/Warner didn't want to renew the copyright for it.

https://vimeo.com/155612556 - a version that replaces the score with Jonny Greenwood cuts.

 

[I can't imagine]

Very surprised to see Greed enter the public domain. I don't think its had an official DVD/Bluray release. Maybe now the lost 8 hour cut will surface. XD. I guess MGM/Warner didn't want to renew the copyright for it.

https://vimeo.com/155612556 - a version that replaces the score with Jonny Greenwood cuts.

They can't renew the copyright; for anything made before 1978, the copyright expires after 95 years no matter what.

 

[Dr. Troon]

HAHAAA!

Suck it, United.

I'd love to get beat up by police while Gershwin plays in the background any day of the week.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

public domain cartoon dvds are some of the best things mankind has ever created

 

[A Welsh Cake]

When Kiwi Farms lose copyrights?

 

[TenMilesWide]

1924? Find me in the Alps, man, copyright is ridiculous.

Shit should go into the public domain within an average human lifetime, at the very least.

 

[tehpope]

1924? Find me in the Alps, man, copyright is ridiculous.

Shit should go into the public domain within an average human lifetime, at the very least.

Disney wanted to keep Mickey out of PD for a long ass time. Blame them.

 

[Lucille Bluth]

Disney wanted to keep Mickey out of PD for a long ass time. Blame them.

Speaking of Disney, I remembered reading that the author of Tarzan’s Family has been fighting with Disney for a while.

I believe sometime this year marks the 70th Anniversary of the authors death. The mouse must be somewhere pretty happy.

 

[SteelPlatedHeart]

Guess we can expect a lot of remakes and movies based on all these.

 

[CeleryStalks]

Some more books that entered the public domain yesterday:
Economics for Helen, by Hilaire Belloc
The King of Elfland's Daughter, by Lord Dunsany
Three short stories by H. P. Lovecraft and C. M. Eddy: Ashes; The Ghost-Eater; and The Loved Dead.

Also, in two years we'll be getting more significant (Good un-americanized) Winnie the Pooh content dropping. FUCK YES.

Maybe sooner than that, if they stick to Pooh and Christopher Robin. Maybe later, if you want Tigger.

The bear doesn’t yet have the name “Winnie-the-Pooh”. In this book he’s just called “Teddy Bear”, or more formally, Mr. “Edward Bear” (a name also used in his later book). His appearance, as established in this book, joins the public domain next month. The year after that, it will be joined by his “Pooh” name and his first prose story (“The Wrong Sort of Bees”, published in London’s Evening News at Christmastime 1925). The following year, most of the rest of Pooh’s Hundred Acre Wood friends will join the public domain, along with the book Winnie-the-Pooh (which includes Pooh’s bee story as its first chapter). Tigger, who bounced into print two years later in The House at Pooh Corner, will be the last of the major Milne characters to join the public domain, the same year as we can expect Mickey Mouse’s first copyrights to expire in the US.

Latest of all if you live in the UK. Europe uses author's life+70 years, so the Brits will need a Pooh license until 2026.

By the way, Canada is life+50, so shouldn't Pooh have been in the public domain there for a while? Have any Canadians done anything with him?

 

[XYZpdq]

So these songs mean the composition itself is PD? A particular recording?

 

[sasazuka]

By the way, Canada is life+50, so shouldn't Pooh have been in the public domain there for a while? Have any Canadians done anything with him?

Not that I'm aware of but, if I'm not mistaken, that public domain rule only applies to works created within Canada anyway, works from outside Canada are bound by the public domain rules of the originating country. I know there's a Canadian connection with Winnie the Pooh in terms of the original bear that inspired the books but the books themselves are British.

EDIT: I forgot this TV movie about Winnie the bear from 2004, but that's a dramatization of historical events which is outside the purview of any copyrights or trademarks.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

So I have a question about copyright. Let's say the EU or Russia kills the Disney infinite copyright bullshit. Can you then legally upload the full films to that county's respective social media sites and no one could do anything about it?

 

[The Cunting Death]

So I have a question about copyright. Let's say the EU or Russia kills the Disney infinite copyright bullshit. Can you then legally upload the full films to that county's respective social media sites and no one could do anything about it?

You probably could but I'm pretty sure some company will try to abuse the copyright system and flag it as their own

 

[ZMOT]

So I have a question about copyright. Let's say the EU or Russia kills the Disney infinite copyright bullshit. Can you then legally upload the full films to that county's respective social media sites and no one could do anything about it?

unlikely since that shit is part of trade deals etc. and even if, guess who runs most of social media?

 

[Pokemonquistador2]

Welp. It's time for Razorfist to start reeing about all of the shitty Buster Keaton knockoff movies that are about to hit the street. ("HURR DURR! Only copyright owners can make good versions of their own intellectual property!") Because we all know how good sequels to popular movies are and that none of them have ever been souless cashgrabs that recycle the plot from the first movie in any way...

 

[Gorgar]

When Kiwi Farms lose copyrights?

January 1st 2108