Public Domain 2024
Happy new Year!
For January’s Freeform, it feels right to cover some notable works coming into the public domain as of the 1st of January this year. While at first I thought this would be a pretty quick list to bring together, with a few notes about my gripes with a certain mouse and the company that contributed to the mess that public domain laws are today, low and behold I have been diving into forums and posts trying to parse copyright laws between various countries and convoluted rules to figure out if the mouse in question has even entered the public domain in the UK. Long story short, yes Steamboat Willie is in the public domain in the UK… I think.
Steamboat Willie (1928)
Without a doubt the most notable entry to the public domain this year is Steamboat Willie. Disney’s Iconic mouse is finally available to use without restrictions, but don’t get any ideas about putting him in a magicians hat or god forbid give him his iconic squeaky voice, otherwise you’ll still be getting a knock on the door. Along with Mickey, the film also includes other popular characters such as his counterpart Minnie and boat captain Pete.
I’m going to go into a bit more detail about my earlier comments about trying to figure out whether Mickey was public domain in the UK as I believe it’s a good example of how copyright laws and the language used discourages people from using material for fear of legal repercussions.
In the US, books and films (including artworks featured) that were published in 1928 are now in the public domain as of 2024, however this law only applies if you are living in the US. In the likes of the UK and EU, works enter the public domain 70 years after the persons death. For some countries this is 50 years. This creates a bit of an issue when searching for public domain material, as some works can be public domain in one place, but not another. When looking at Mickey Mouse as an example, Steamboat Willie was published in 1928 so it is public domain in the US, but the artist who designed Mickey Mouse, Urb Iwerks, died in 1971 meaning that in the UK Mickey wouldn’t be in the public domain until 2042. However this isn’t the case as UK legislation states that:
“Where the country of origin is not the United Kingdom and the author of the film is not a national of the United Kingdom, the duration of copyright is that to which the work is entitled in the country of origin, provided that does not exceed the period which would apply under subsections (2) to (6).” Subsection 6 refers to works which are published simultaneously in multiple countries (within 30 days).
So in this instance, because Steamboat Willie was published in the US in 1928, and not in the UK until a year later, the copyright for Steamboat Willie in the UK actually uses the US system.
You can see how this creates a situation where it could put someone off trying to use a given piece of material despite having a legal right to do whatever they would like with it. This works to the original copyright holder’s benefit, even if their work is in the public domain, if it’s confusing to know whether you can use it or not people won’t want to accidentally find themselves in legal trouble with the likes of Disney or other big companies.
On that note, these companies have no responsibility to make their public domain material accessible. This is another way companies such as Disney can restrict your use of public domain works, even if you know something is in the public domain, if there isn’t an easy way to access that material, or find high quality versions of it, you will have to find a source yourself. Maybe this isn’t much of a problem for notable works, but if you were looking for something that isn’t as well known, you could find yourself with no easy way to access it.
A downloadable version of Steamboat Willie can be found here on The Internet Archive.
Right, moving on to more interesting works now.
Dylan Thomas (1914 - 1953)
Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, known for his works Do not go gentle into that good night and And death shall have no dominion, among many others, has entered the public domain for countries with the 70+ year law (sorry US you have a bit more waiting to do).
Unlike in the US, where over time an artists individual works enter the public domain year on year, Most countries with a life +(x) years law see artist’s entire catalogues enter the public domain at once.
Works by Dylan Thomas can be found here on Project Gutenberg, though more readable versions of his work as well as a biography can be accessed through The Poetry Foundation.
Virginia Woolf, Orlando
While already in the public domain for Countries with the “life +70 years” law, Orlando is in the public domain in the US as of this year so it only seems right to give it a mention here.
“Orlando: A Biography is a novel by Virginia Woolf, first published on 11 October 1928. Inspired by the tumultuous family history of the aristocratic poet and novelist Vita Sackville-West, Woolf's lover and close friend, it is arguably one of her most popular novels; Orlando is a history of English literature in satiric form. The book describes the adventures of a poet who changes sex from man to woman and lives for centuries, meeting the key figures of English literary history. Considered a feminist classic, the book has been written about extensively by scholars of women's writing and gender and transgender studies.” - From Wikipedia.
A recent example of Orlando’s continuing importance include Neil Bartlett’s stage adaption starring Emma Corrin.
Orlando can be read here on fadedpage.com which provides over 8000 free ebooks.
Django Reinhardt (1910 - 1953)
Romani-Belgian jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt was one of Europe’s earliest and most influential Jazz musicians and composers. He was known for playing with just two fingers on his left hand due to an injury prior to his career as a musician which left his ring finger and pinky badly burned.
while music recordings and compositions operate on separate public domain licences (see Open Music Archive’s FAQ page for more details), Django’s compositions and recordings are both now in the public domain in the UK.
Recordings of Django’s work can be found here on the Internet Archive, a site which probably deserves its own freeform post by itself soon.
If you would like to find more notable works entering the public domain I would recommend having a look through Public Domain Review’s Happy Public Domain Day 2024! Blog post as well as Duke University’s Public Domain Day 2024 Post.
While it can be interesting to have a look every year at works entering the public domain, it also comes with frustration. It is my belief that the length of time given to a copyright holder is far too long. To think that almost a century of time is somehow reasonable for someone to be able to stop you from using something is absurd. By the time a lot of works enter the public domain they are no longer culturally relevant. While some pieces of art manage to stand the test of time and less known works can be used to create exciting new pieces of work, by the time they are actually available without restriction the moment has very much passed.
The argument you will see from people who agree with these laws is that it encourages innovation and creativity and stops people from creating low effort replicas of something that already exists. It’s quite a pessimistic outlook, to believe that the few people attempting to make a quick buck by making NFTs out of recognisable characters outweighs the potential good of allowing people to iterate on stories and works in order to create something that is larger than one persons interpretation. There’s already a lot of writing on this topic, and I encourage anyone to look a little further into it if interested. Below you will find articles and sites I used to write this blog, which may be a good place to start.
Articles and websites referenced for this blog:
Public Domain Review - Happy Public Domain Day 2024!
Public Domain Image Library - Public Domain Copyright Rules – US and UK Criteria Explained
Duke University School of Law - Public Domain Day 2024
Duke University School of Law - Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain: a 95-year Love Triangle
Reddit (so big pinch of salt) - Is Mickey Mouse going public domain in the UK too?
Legislation.gov.uk - Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
IMDb - Steamboat Willie
Open Music Archive - FAQ