Every new year, creative people leave some gifts to humanity. What those gifts are is revealed on the very first day. Yes, 1 January was "Public Domain Day".
As you know, most works of art are protected by copyright as soon as they are created. But although works are immortal, people are not. Therefore, these works are no longer personal values, but are now shared with humanity, with us. Of course, if there are various foundations and organisations to protect these works, the copyright period can be extended or some of the rights can be retained.
So how long does a work of art last? Although it varies from country to country and from type of work to type of work, there are some rules. There may be differences depending on literary works, all kinds of visual productions or all kinds of sound recordings.
If we talk about the USA, copyrights obtained before 1978 have a life of 95 years. Copyrights obtained after that year last up to 70 years after the death of the author. In short, authors who died in 1954 fall into this category. In some countries the term is 50 years, in others 80 years.
In this context, in the US, works created in or before 1929 are in the public domain (other countries may have different dates and rules), meaning that they can be used without attribution and with modifications. Of course, this does not necessarily mean all of an author's works, all of a composer's compositions, or all of a director's films. The distinction here is related to the publication of the work in question during the author's lifetime.
Copyright is indeed an important issue. Because it is an effective system that legally recognises that the work belongs to the creator, provides a degree of protection, makes malicious people think twice, brings balance to all kinds of artistic activity and keeps them in line. If everyone could bend and twist all sorts of works and claim to have created something new, the value of art would be seriously diminished and we would be far away from originality. This kind of legal order and restriction forces us to evaluate and improve our own thoughts.
Photo by Tanya Paquet on Unsplash
In 2025, I researched well-known works and authors that are free to use.
The list includes stories written by successful authors such as William Faulkner, Agatha Christie, John Steinbeck, Virginia Woolf and Ernest Hemingway. There are also many classic songs such as “**Singing in the Rain”**. If we look at the world of cinema, Alfred Hitchcock's “Blackmai”', the first sound film of his career, is an example from the visual arts.
A few years ago, only the first drawings of the characters Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh became public domain (because they were later modified). This, in turn, has become the domain of those who love them or artists who want to use them to create a different style. The production of low-budget horror films featuring these two characters was not delayed.
This year the first cartoons of Popeye and Tintin reach the end of their copyright period. The funny and surprising thing is that three different horror films about Popeye have already been made. Yes, there is no problem to use the characters in different themes and plots.
Again, all four characters are still under copyright, but they can be used as originally conceived (like the old Mickey in the photo). In general, these are the designs we are used to seeing in black and white. That doesn't stop the artists, of course.
Books, plays, compositions, sound recordings, cartoon characters, artworks... I find it fascinating to see what we will encounter in another year that is available to the public in a thousand different ways.
From a literary point of view, this also means that book translations and editions may increase. It may seem sad at first to be separated from our favourite authors for another year, but on the other hand it opens the doors for us to feel closer to them by reading them. Works of art become many while they are one, and this gives us a chance to interact across genres and types of work.
Who knows how many values we have whose copyright has expired. It is very important to find and preserve each one of them (although I am sure there are people who do) because they are our culture. It is also important to recognise the works before they take this form. Personally, I feel incomplete in this respect.
Let's look at the present: I wonder what form the works we know now will take when their copyrights expire? Perhaps your works (if there are any) will meet creative minds in the future and do more than inspire them.
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