What is Public Domain Day?
In the United States, January 1, 2024, is Public Domain Day – the day when many works of art from the past enter their final form: public domain. Art that has come out of copyright is available for everyone to adapt, rewrite, transform, chop into pieces, and treat as our rightful legacy. And yes, creators can use the latest public domain works to make money.
Available Works of Art
In the days leading up to public domain, entities like Walt Disney Studios have benefited from favorable copyright terms to adapt relatively modern stories into successful films without paying copyright fees. For example, when Disney produced the film Pinocchio, the original story was in the public domain at that time, but it was published almost around the same time as the Beatles’ Rubber Soul album in our past today.
So it is ironic that Disney itself is working hard to shape current American laws to ensure that art is kept from the public for decades longer than it was in the past. The latest works of art in the public domain today date back to 95 years ago, making the stories, images, words, and sounds in these newly available media seem more buried in the mists of time.
However, Public Domain Day in 2024 will unlock many works that feel fresh, vibrant, and culturally relevant. Even some notable releases will be snatched from Disney’s secret vault and seize the company’s intellectual jewels. Here’s the best we will have, we the public, now:
Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse
If you are reading this after January 1, 2024, the time has come: Mickey and Minnie belong to you – at least, as long as we’re only talking about the animated mice as depicted in the films Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. As long as you do not use Mickey and Minnie as trademarks, which is entirely different from copyright (simply put, don’t open a restaurant called “Walt Disney Mickey Mouse Burger” and you’ll be fine).
In the public domain (as of 2024), Mickey and Minnie were non-speaking, black-and-white characters who did not have gloves and did not have a dog named Pluto. In both animations, Mickey was kind of obnoxious. So you need to carefully watch the original assets if you want to tell your own mouse stories and be sure not to rely on films that have not yet entered the public domain. For instance, Mickey in the evil sorcerer’s outfit from the 1940 film Fantasia still belongs to the corporate Mickey masters to this day. He also lacks his red shorts, bashful demeanor, and cheerful voice, which he didn’t acquire until years later, so you might want to avoid those traits.
It is worth noting that legal precedents call into question the idea that a splash of color or a sunny disposition could be copyrightable additions to a character that belongs to the public, so perhaps some red shorts would be acceptable (did I mention this article is not legal advice?).
Tigger
One of the curiosities of the film world in 2023 was the movie Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey, a British horror film that reportedly isn’t worth watching. Its notoriety stems from the fact that it seems to exist solely because the original Winnie-the-Pooh book by A.A. Milne has entered the public domain, allowing the protagonist character to be used as a villain in what we might call a public domain exploitation film.
One of the characters who was not in Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey is Tigger, as the soft, friendly, and bouncy tiger has not yet been removed from copyright. With The House at Pooh Corner entering the public domain, Tigger, who makes his first appearance in the pages of this book, will be free to be cut and chopped alongside his friend Pooh.
Band
The Marx Brothers
There aren’t many public domain films that you can remake and get guaranteed laughs. But you can now cheat simply by using the book from the Broadway show Animal Crackers, which was later adapted into the classic film that is still under copyright with the same name. The public domain cannot claim the marvelous performance of the Marx Brothers, but the book written by George S. Kaufman and Morrie Ryskind contains some great jokes like “One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don’t know.”
W.E.B. Du Bois’s Novel Dark Princess
When you search the public domain for something to build on, you may not expect to find a surprising experimental and romantic novel about racial awareness across the globe, both in society and deep in the human heart. And that’s what makes Dark Princess by the world’s W.E.B. Du Bois, sociologist, historian, and writer, an impressive discovery. The book, which blends romance and political fiction, explores themes of race, class, and discrimination based on color in a global context — especially in the United States and India. So here is a work in the public domain that offers a fresh and new perspective on racial relations, and you can feel free to adapt it into a film or turn it into music or, I don’t know, paint the words of the book on canvas.
Virginia Woolf’s Novel Orlando
Orlando, like Dark Princess, is a literary masterpiece ahead of its time of the kind you might not expect to already be in the public domain. Orlando is a satirical biography of an immortal being who changes genders and lives through several centuries. So if you hope to adapt the story of a non-conforming hero who travels through time, there’s no need to wait nearly a century for The Flash to enter the public domain; Orlando is already available.
The Book Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág
Millions of Cats is a miracle work for parents: a beautifully illustrated, funny, and easy-to-digest picture book that holds children’s attention for a good ten minutes. And yet, this work is perhaps the first American picture book — the literary form that has dominated the pre-school market ever since. Now, its wonderful words and illustrations are yours to adapt as you see fit. If you struggle with the story’s ending that involves (spoiler alert) most of the cats getting jealous and eating each other, you can publish your limited version. Have all the cats go play with a ball of yarn or something like that. But of course, you would lose the mysterious comedic thrill of the original.
The Film The Cameraman by Buster Keaton
If you’re a fan of the 2014 film Nightcrawler and looking to remake its story, you’re in luck; that film probably won’t enter the public domain in your lifetime based on the current legal framework. Fortunately, Buster Keaton’s film The Cameraman has the same story: a poor person in the big city buys a camera and begins to gather often violent news footage as a freelancer. Then he stirs up competition with someone who has been in the field longer, and of course, he uses his footage to impress a woman.
The Film Should Married Men Go Home? by Laurel and Hardy
Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy can be found in the public domain elsewhere, but the comic duo of Laurel and Hardy has never happened before. They started strong too with a short film directed by Leo McCarey and James Parrott that evolves from an awkward living room scene at its outset, to a climax filled with sexual energy wrestling in the mud. As expected, it seems married men should go home.
Novel
The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie
Do you want to adapt a murder mystery novel by Agatha Christie set aboard a train and featuring the legendary detective Hercule Poirot as its hero? Well, unfortunately, the film Murder on the Orient Express is still locked away in the vault due to copyright. But there’s good news as well: The Mystery of the Blue Train is yours to take starting in 2024.
I Wanna Be Loved By You Song by Herbert Stothart and Harry Ruby
No, the scene in the 1959 film Some Like It Hot with Marilyn Monroe singing “I Wanna Be Loved by You” is not in the public domain yet, but the sheet music for the song itself is now in the public domain (as of 2024). The scene itself is so famous that no one can hear the song without thinking of the scene and Marilyn. So do what you want with the song, and let its implications flow into your work. The truth is that the song cannot fail to bring to mind some of the cultural memories of works that are still under copyright!
All Quiet on the Western Front Novel by Erich Maria Remarque
If you’re looking for a shorthand for critical appreciation, you can find plenty of literary works adapted from the classic World War I novel All Quiet on the Western Front. It was adapted into a film in 1930 and again after 92 years in 2022. Both times, the resulting film was nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture (and the first film actually won).
Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love) Song by Cole Porter
If there’s a song that suits itself to various interpretations, it’s “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall in Love)” by Cole Porter. It’s just a list of things that “do it”: birds do it, bees do it. Even the song’s original lyrics aren’t precise: romantic sponges, they say, do it. Talk about a fabric that reproduces asexually! What would you like to sing about the ability to “do it”? Trucks? Electricians? Dwarves? From now until the end of time, we can couple anyone or anywhere or anything we want – and we can do it with Cole Porter’s unique voice. God bless the public domain…. and more!
Other Works in the Public Domain
Additionally, there are other works entering the public domain, including:
– Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence
– The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) by Bertolt Brecht
– Home to Harlem by Claude McKay
– Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
– West-Running Brook poetry collection by Robert Frost
– The Circus, directed by Charlie Chaplin
– The Passion of Joan of Arc, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer
– The Man Who Laughs, directed by Paul Leni
– Lights of New York, directed by Bryan Foy
– Speedy, directed by Ted Wilde (and starring Harold Lloyd)
– The Last Command, directed by Josef von Sternberg (winner of the Oscar for Best Actor)
– Street Angel, directed by Frank Borzage (winner of the Oscar for Best Actress)
– “Mack the Knife” song (in German) by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill
– “When You’re Smiling” song by Mark Fisher, Joe Goodwin, and Larry Shay
– “Makin’ Whoopee!” song by Gus Khan and Walter Donaldson
– “Pick Pocket Blues” song by Bessie Smith
Source: https://me.mashable.com/tech/36435/here-are-2024s-public-domain-works-and-how-you-can-use-them
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