Take note, aspiring animators: We’re officially 95 years out from Mickey Mouse’s 1928 debut, which means that Steamboat Willie and Plane Crazy are fair game for future use. Each year on Jan. 1, enthusiasts watch as a new bevvy of works enters the public domain — and in the world of intellectual property, 2024 started with a bang.

Many of the works added to the catalog this year reflect the major sociocultural shifts of the 1920s, and were greeted with the customary controversy on their first outings. This is particularly true of many of 1928’s landmark novels: Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence, Orlando by Virginia Woolf, and Dark Princess by W.E.B Du Bois. Major aesthetic strides were also being made in film; The Passion of Joan of Arc by Carl Theodor Dryer, starring Renée Jeanne Falconetti, is still regarded as a game-changing work of art, and elsewhere “talkies” were beginning to take over after their introduction the year prior.

Audio recordings follow slightly different rules when entering public domain, including a 100-year copyright, compared to the 95 years for film, literature, and written musical compositions. That means that James P. Johnson’s 1923 recording of his song Charleston, the tune that set the 1920s roaring, can be downloaded for free from the Library of Congress.

When a work enters the public domain, the public no longer needs to seek the artist’s permission to copy or use the work. This opens the door for creative riffs on the classics, and makes public domain materials available free of charge.  

Here are some places to check out the newest creative works now in the public domain:

• Hathi Trust Digital Library – These materials from the Google Books Project have been digitized for years, but as of January 1, the full-text is now available to everyone.
• Center for the Study of Public Domain – Duke’s Public Domain Day page has some great selected highlights.
• The Public Domain Review – This journal specializes in mining the public domain.
• The UI Libraries Catalog – Search InfoHawk+ to find digital versions of public domain works. 

Interested in finding out more about U.S. copyright law and how to determine a work’s copyright status? The Scholarly Impact Department helps faculty work through complex copyright issues, such as what can be used in the classroom, how to retain your rights as an author, and how to apply Creative Commons licensing. Feel free to send an email to mahrya-burnett@uiowa.edu to set up a consultation. You might also try these excellent copyright resources:

• Cornell University Library Copyright Information Center – This handy reference chart is great for a quick check on copyright status.
• Digital Copyright Slider – This Flash-based slider provides copyright status for works, depending on when they were published and whether copyright was renewed.
• UI Libraries Copyright Guide – This guide provides the basics on copyright issues, such as Fair Use, seeking permissions, author rights, and licensing.