Tag Archives: Public Domain

What will the House of Mouse do when the Mouse isn’t entirely in the House?

Posted on April 1, 2021 | Leave a comment

I will occasionally post about topics involving intellectual property and the public domain, most notably with new works coming into the public domain in the United States every January 1st.

That means, in relatively short order, Mickey Mouse will come into the public domain, since his first appearance was in 1928’s “Steamboat Willie.”

Still from “Steamboat Willie”

But whenever Disney and lawyers are involved, you know that no simple answer will suffice.

Enter Quincy Stanford over at the Disney Food Blog, who does a deep dive into the various ramifications “Steamboat Willie” coming into the public domain may have for Disney the company.

And lest you wonder how much a site called the Disney Food Blog has to say about Disney’s intellectual property rights, I would submit it’s as much or potentially more than a site named for some guy with a Scandinavian name.

Leave a comment

Posted in Various and Sundry

Tagged , ,

Public Domain Day, 2021

Posted on January 1, 2021 | 1 comment

Since I’ve written about it before, I suppose I should make a habit of celebrating the fact that New Year’s Day is also Public Domain Day, which in the U.S. means that, as of today, any copyrights from works released or otherwise published in 1925 have expired and said works are now in the public domain.

Montage via the Center for the Study of the Public Domain

I should mention that I’m not an entirely disinterested party in these matters. As the head of Jabberwocky Audio Theater, I have a keen interest in stories that might make good adaptations for audio fiction. I mean, we can and will continue to find works from the 19th century and earlier to use (adapting “Prince Prigio” last year was a lot of fun). But “new” old stuff would be fun to do as well.

We’re not likely to do an adaptation of The Great Gatsby, but as Ian Carlos Campbell argues over on The Verge, the Muppets should totally do a version of that quintessential novel of the Jazz Age.

Jennifer Jenkins, Director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, not surprisingly has a nice rundown of many noteworthy works available sans copyright — and also explains why it’s great to have many non-noteworthy works available as well.

I should also note that Public Domain in the U.S. is a bit different than worldwide rights, which vary widely. But it’s certainly worth exploring. What books or films do you want to see new adaptations of?

1 Comment

Posted in Producing, Writing

Tagged

New Year, New Works in the Public Domain

Posted on January 10, 2020 | Leave a comment
From Buster Keaton’s “Sherlock Jr.”

Public Domain is a topic I periodically cover here on the blog and what with works beginning to enter said domain once again in the United States as of last year, I suppose this might become a January tradition.

Thousands of works from 1924 are now yours for the re-imagining as detailed here in Smithsonian Magazine, Vice news, and art news site Hyperallergic.

I expect a heavy metal version of “Rhapsody in Blue,” stat. Get creative, people!

Leave a comment

Posted in Producing, Writing

Tagged ,

80% of Books written before 1964 in Public Domain?!?

Posted on August 5, 2019 | Leave a comment

I’m always interested in the state of works in the public domain, especially as works in the U.S. have started entering said domain this year. So I was surprised, bordering on elated, to learn that the majority of books published in the U.S. before 1964 may actually be in the public domain: we don’t need to wait another 1-40 years!

So, so many books… Where to begin?

Here’s a link to the change covered by Boing Boing as well as the actual posting they reference. I’ll update this post as I get more information.

Leave a comment

Posted in Various and Sundry, Writing

Tagged ,

After a 21-year Pause, More Art Enters Public Domain

Posted on December 31, 2018 | 2 comments

2019 will bring many things, both planned and unplanned… but one of the planned events is one I had forgotten until people started circulating an article from the Smithsonian magazine by Glenn Fleishman: a mass of copyrights is expiring putting books, poems, music, films, and other art into the public domain.

This is very exciting, and not just because Jabberwocky Audio Theater will happily adapt 1920s sci-fi and adventure material as it did from H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds, long in public domain. No, this means a lot of works which haven’t been distributed and shared widely can and will be, allowing countless people the opportunity to experience the art anew. As the one article says, it’ll be like a yearly time capsule.

In addition, NPR did a brief piece about the coming mass expiration and Lifehacker has a list of some of the more prominent works that will be in the public domain. I suppose “expiration” has a bit too negative connotation, so let’s call it an artistic explosion.

Now I have another reason to be excited for January 1st every year.

2 Comments

Posted in Various and Sundry

Tagged , ,

When Mickey’s Ears Perk Up

Posted on January 12, 2018 | Leave a comment

Copyright is always a topic of interest to writers and public domain in the United States is of added interest what with Congress’ tendency to extend copyright.

As it happens, a whole host of published works (films and books) are set to enter the public domain next year. Timothy Lee notes in an article for Ars Technica that, strangely, that might happen. (He also links to his excellent 2013 article on the same subject).

Leave a comment

Posted in Writing

Tagged ,