update: see what will enter the public domain on January 1, 2022!
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You are reading: When do books enter public domain
by jennifer jenkins, director of the duke center for the study of the public domain
January 1, 2021 is Public Domain Day: works from 1925 are open to all!
on january 1, 2021, works protected by copyright from 1925 will enter the u.s. public domain. uu.,1 where they will be free for everyone to use and develop. these works include books such as f. The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald, Mrs. dalloway, ernest hemingway’s in our time and franz kafka’s the trial (in the original german), silent films starring harold lloyd and buster keaton, and music ranging from standard sweet georgia brown jazz to songs by gertrude “ma” rainey, w.c. handy, and fat waller.
This isn’t just the famous last line from the great gatsby. it also summarizes what the public domain is all about. a culture is an ongoing conversation between the present and the past. On the day of the public domain, we all have a “green light”, in keeping with the gatsby theme, to use yet another year of that rich cultural past, without permission or payment.
The works from 1925 were supposed to enter the public domain in 2001, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before that could happen, Congress hit a 20-year pause button and extended the copyright term to 95 years.2 Now the wait is over.
In 2021, there is much to celebrate. 1925 brought us an incredible culture. The Harlem Renaissance was in full swing. the new yorker magazine is founded. the literature reflected both a booming economy, the fruits of which were unevenly distributed, and the continuing turmoil and tragedy of the First World War. the culture of the time reflected all these contradictory tendencies. The BBC Culture website suggested that 1925 might be “the best year for books”, and rightly so. it’s not just the wide range of famous titles. the stylistic innovations produced by books like gatsby, or the trial, or mrs. dalloway marked a change in both the tone and substance of our literary culture, a widening of the range of possibilities available to writers, while characters like jay gatsby, hemingway’s nick adams, and clarissa dalloway still resonate today .
How will people celebrate this treasure trove of cultural material? the internet archive will add books, movies, music and more to your online library. hathitrust will make tens of thousands of 1925 titles available in its digital repository. Google Books will offer the full text of that year’s books, rather than showing only partial views or authorized previews. community theaters can show the films. youth orchestras can afford to publicly perform or rearrange the music. educators and historians can share the entire cultural record. creators can legally build on the past: reinvent the books, make them into movies, adapt the songs.
These are some of the works that will enter the public domain in 2021. (To find more material from 1925, you can visit the catalog of copyrighted entries). (You can click on some of the titles below to get the recently released public domain works. In the case of videos with sound, the copyright status of the audio is unknown.)
why celebrate the public domain? rediscovering the past, feeding the future
a source for the creativity of the future. the purpose of copyright is to promote creativity, and the public domain plays a central role in doing so. Copyright law gives authors important rights that encourage creativity and distribution. but it also ensures that those rights last for a “limited time,” so that when they expire, works can pass into the public domain, where future authors can legally build on their inspirations. as the supreme court explained:
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“[Copyrights] are intended to motivate the creative activity of authors and inventors by providing a special reward, and to allow public access to the products of their genius after the limited period has expired exclusive control”. sony vs. universal (1984).
In 2021, anyone can use these works as raw material for their own creations, without fear of a lawsuit. what kinds of things will people do with works in the public domain? In 2020, jazz composers and arrangers David Berger and Chuck Israels released the Public Domain Songs Anthology. as described in the book’s announcement, it compiles 348 songs that can be “studyed, interpreted, adapted and shared without restriction”. Better yet, “Berger and Israels contributions have also been donated to the public domain, which will help preserve and breathe new life into the rich legacy of these songs, many of which are at risk of being forgotten or overlooked.” To preview songs that entered the public domain in 1925, listen to Bob Schwartz’s excellent quartet perform a medley of songs from 1925. Bravo! other public domain-inspired reuses include techdirt’s annual public domain games jam that invites designers to create games based on new public domain works, and the internet archive’s contest for the best short films using public domain works. configured to enter the public domain.
the great gatsby? after 95 years of exclusivity, the great gatsby is now entering the public domain, where it will be freely available to the next fitzgerald… what could future creators do with the great gatsby? they could make it into a movie, an opera or a musical. More importantly, they could do it even if they didn’t have the financial resources to license the book from the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, directed by Baz Luhrmann. for future filmmakers the great gatsby will be as free as… romeo and juliet. But the public domain not only brings financial freedom, it also brings cultural freedom. someone could re-imagine the story with a more inclusive cast or set in a different era. they could reinterpret it, tell it from the perspective of myrtle or jordan, or do prequels and sequels. in fact, novelist michael farris smith is slated to release nick, a prequel to gatsby that tells the story of nick carraway’s life before he moved to west egg, the January 5, 2021. As explained in a new york times editorial:
when a work enters the public domain it means that the public can afford to use it freely, give it a new currency… [public domain works] are an essential part of every artist’s livelihood, of the livelihood of every person.6
Looking up at the book’s entry into the public domain, Blake Hazard, Fitzgerald’s great-granddaughter, reflected: “We’re very grateful to have had it under copyright, not just for the pretty obvious benefits, but to try to safeguard the text, target certain projects and try to avoid unlucky ones. now we are looking towards a new period and trying to see it with enthusiasm, knowing that some exciting things can come”. just as the works of shakespeare have given us everything from 10 things I hate about you and kiss me kate (from taming the shrew) to west side story (from romeo and juliet), who knows what might inspire the great gatsby? As with shakespeare, the ability to freely re-imagine the iconic works of 1925 can stimulate a variety of creativity, from the serious to the whimsical, and in doing so allows authors’ legacies to endure.
access to our cultural heritage
The public domain also allows access to cultural materials that might otherwise be lost to history. 1925 was a long time ago. the vast majority of works from 1925 are out of circulation. when they enter the public domain in 2021, anyone can make them available online, where we can discover them, enjoy them, and breathe new life into them. (Empirical studies have shown that public domain books are less expensive, available in more editions and formats, and more likely to be printed – see here, here, and here.) the works listed above are just the tip of the iceberg. many more forgotten works are waiting to be rediscovered.
Unfortunately, the fact that the 1925 works are legally available does not mean that they really are. after 95 years, many of these works have already been lost or are literally disintegrating (as is the case with movies7 and old recordings), proof that long terms of copyright affect the preservation of cultural artifacts . for example, sequences that were shot in two-tone Technicolor from two of the earlier films, The Merry Widow and Fair Ladies, were apparently lost. for the material that has survived, however, the long-awaited entry into the public domain is still something to celebrate.
the invisible public domain
many of the works presented above are famous; That’s why we include them. their copyright holders benefited from 20 more years of copyright because the works had enduring popularity and were still earning royalties. But when Congress extended the copyright term for works like The Great Gatsby, it also did so for all works whose commercial viability had long since ended. for the vast majority, probably 99%, of the 1925 works, no copyright holder benefited financially from continued copyright. however, they remained off limits, for no good reason. (A report from the Congressional Research Service indicated that only about 2% of copyrights between the ages of 55 and 75 retain commercial value. After 75 years, that percentage is even lower. Most older works are “orphan works”, where the copyright owner cannot be found at all.)
hitler’s copyright story
There were also some really hateful works from 1925, most notably mein kampf by adolf hitler, which was actually the subject of a fascinating copyright history.8 a young reporter named alan cranston, who later became a United States senator, had read the German version of the book and was shocked to see an extravagant translation circulating in the United States. This English version had removed some of the most hateful and terrifying parts of the book, including Hitler’s plan for Nazi domination. so, in cranston’s words, he prepared a “reader’s digest-like version (showing) the worst of hitler” that included “every major point, every major idea that hitler put forth,” but “cut out his long digressions and cut out a lot of of endless repetition,” and added annotations showing hitler’s “propaganda and distortions.” Cranston promised no royalties to Hitler and promised that any profit would go to help refugees from Hitler’s Reich. the unauthorized translation cost 10 cents and sold half a million copies in 10 days. it was 1939.
While Cranston exposed Hitler’s evil, his unauthorized translation also undermined the market for the sanitized, authorized version. was sued for copyright infringement and lost in court. “Damage was not assessed, but we had to stop selling the book,” Cranston recalled. “But we woke up a lot of Americans to the Nazi threat.”
more works!
Technically, many works from 1925 may alread be in the public domain because copyright owners failed to go through the “formalities” that used to be necessary for copyright protection. 9 at the time, your work entered the public domain if you did not include a copyright notice, e.g. “Copyright 1925 virginia woolf”—upon publication, or if she did not renew the copyright after 28 years. current copyright law no longer has these requirements. But even though those works may technically be in the public domain, as a practical matter the public often has to assume they are still in copyright (or risk a lawsuit) because the relevant copyright information is difficult to find. find: older records may be fragmentary. , confused or lost. This is why Public Domain Day is so significant. on January 1, 2021, the public will know that works published in 1925 are free to use without tedious or inconclusive research.
As a precaution, our previous lists primarily include works for which we were able to track renewal data, suggesting they are still in copyright through the end of 2020 and will affirmatively enter the public domain in 2021. However, there were many exciting works from 1925 for which we were unable to locate renovations. They will also be in the public domain in 2021, but may have entered the public domain decades ago due to lack of renewal.
Some authors choose to dedicate their works to the public domain before the copyright term expires. In 2020, musician (and mathematician) Tom Lehrer, who became famous for his satirical songs in the 1950s and 1960s, put all of his original lyrics and compositions into the public domain. you can find them here. (Artists wishing to put their work into the public domain can do so using the creative commons cc0 tool.)
What Could Have Been
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The 1925 works finally enter the public domain, after a copyright period of 95 years. however, under the laws in effect until 1978, thousands of works from 1964 would enter the public domain this year. They range from the movies goldfinger and mary poppins, to the children’s classics the give tree, harriett the spy, and charlie and the chocolate factory, to the debut album by the rolling stones and a hard day’s night by the beatles, and much more. take a look at some of the others. in fact, since copyright used to come on renewable 28-year terms, and 85% of authors didn’t renew, 85% of works from 1992 could be entering the public domain! Imagine what the world’s great libraries, or just internet hobbyists, could do: digitize those holdings, make them available for education and research, for pleasure, and for creative reuse.
It’s a Wonderful Public Domain. . . .
It’s a Wonderful Public Domain. . . .What happens when works enter the public domain? sometimes wonderful things. the 1947 film How Wonderful to Live entered the public domain in 1975 because its copyright was not properly renewed after the first 28-year term. The film’s release had been a flop, but thanks to its status in the public domain, it became a Christmas classic. why? because the television networks were free to show it over and over again during the holidays, which made the film immensely popular. but then copyright law came back into the picture. . . . In 1993, the film’s original copyright holder, taking advantage of a recent supreme court case, asserted copyright based on its ownership of the film’s musical score and the short story on which it was based. the film (the film itself is still in the public domain). Ironically, a movie that only became a hit due to its public domain status was taken out of copyright.
Do you want to know more about the public domain? Here’s the legal background on how we got our current copyright terms (including summaries of recent court cases), why the public domain matters, and answers to frequently asked questions. you can also read james boyle’s book the public domain: enclosing the commons of the mind (yale university press, 2008)—naturally, you can read the full text of the public domain online free of charge and you may copy and redistribute it for non-commercial purposes. You can also read “In an Ambiguous Battle: The Promise (and Pathos) of Public Domain Day,” an article by Center Director Jennifer Jenkins that reveals the promise and limits of various attempts to reverse the erosion of the domain public domain, and a short article in the huffington post celebrating an earlier public domain day.
1 In 2019, published works entered the American public domain for the first time since 1998. However, in the meantime, a small subset of works: unpublished works that were unregistered with the copyright office before 1978—had entered the public domain after a lifetime plus 70 copyright period. in 2021, unpublished works by authors who died in 1950 will enter the public domain. but, because these works were never published, they are much less likely to be found by potential users. furthermore, it is difficult to determine whether the works were “published” for copyright purposes. therefore, this site focuses on the thousands of published works that ultimately enter the public domain. note that unpublished works that were properly registered with the copyright office in 1925 also enter the public domain after a 20-year wait; for those works, copyright was secured on the date of registration. the copyright term for older works is different in other countries. In the EU, works by authors who died in 1950, including George Orwell, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and George Bernard Shaw, will enter the public domain in 2021 after a lifetime plus 70 years. In Canada, works by authors who died in 1970, including E.M. forster, rube goldberg, jimi hendrix, and janis joplin—will be in the public domain after a lifetime plus 50 years.
2 The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 gave works published between 1923 and 1977 a term of 95 years. they go into the public domain on January 1 after the conclusion of the year 95, so as of 2021, works from 1925 and earlier are in the public domain. works published before 1977 had to meet certain requirements to be eligible for the 95-year term: they all had to be published with a copyright notice, and works before 1964 also had to renew their copyright after the initial term 28 years old. Foreign works from 1925 are still copyrighted in the United States until 2021 if they 1) complied with US notice and renewal formalities, 2) were published in the United States within 30 days of foreign publication , or 3) if neither of these are true, they were still copyrighted in their country of origin as of 1/1/96.
3 Movie buffs may note that some well-known 1925 films, including Charlie Chaplin’s The Lost World and The Gold Rush, are not on this list. this is because their copyrights were not renewed after the first 28-year period.
4 the public domain music list refers to the “musical composition” (the underlying music and lyrics), not the sound recordings of those compositions. federal copyrights did not cover pre-1972 sound recordings (although pre-1972 sound recordings were protected under the laws of some states). However, a new 2018 law called the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”) has federalized copyright for pre-1972 sound recordings, in order to clarify the confusing patchwork of state law protections. The 1925 recordings will enter the public domain in 2026. However, it is important to note that, unlike the rest of copyright law, the MMA allows the use of orphan works: if those older recordings are not exploited commercially, there is a process to legally participate in non-commercial uses. For more information on this law, see the copyright office’s summary. while musical compositions are still copyrighted, there is a “compulsory license” that allows people to make recordings if they pay a standard royalty and abide by the terms of the license. however, this compulsory license does not cover the printing of sheet music, the making of public performances, the synchronization of audio with video, or the making of “derivative works”. and, of course, requires payment. public domain compositions may be freely recorded.
5 For more information on the unequal treatment of black artists, you can read Professor Kevin J’s excellent scholarship. greene, including copyright, culture & (y) black music: a legacy of unequal protection and “copynorms”, black cultural production and the debate on African-American reparations; professor olufunmilayo arewa, including de j.c. Bach to Hip Hop: Musical Borrowings, Copyright, and Cultural Context, Blues Lives: Promises and Perils of Music Copyright, and Writing Rights: The Visual Bias copyright and Afro-American music; and Professor Lateef Mtima, which includes Intellectual Property, Entrepreneurship, and Social Justice: From Swords to Plowshares.
6 see keeping copyrights in balance, (February 21, 1998).
7 Many silent films were intentionally destroyed by studios because they no longer had face value. other older films have disintegrated while preservationists waited for them to enter the public domain so they could be legally digitized. (there is a limited provision that allows some restorations, but it is extremely limited). The Librarian of Congress estimates that more than 80% of movies from the 1920s have already deteriorated beyond repair. Endangered film footage includes not only studio productions, but also works of historical value such as newsreels, anthropological and regional films, rare footage documenting the daily lives of ethnic minorities, and advertising and corporate short films. (for more information see here.)
8 We were unable to locate a copyright renewal for mein kampf, suggesting that it may have entered the us public domain. uu. after the initial 28-year period instead of going into the public domain in 2021.
9 million books published between 1925 and 1963 are in the public domain because the copyright owners did not renew the rights. Efforts have been made to unlock this “secret” public domain, but compiling a definitive list of such titles is a daunting task. Relevant registration and renewal information can be found in the 450,000-page catalog of copyright entries (“cce”). There is currently no way to reliably search all of the CCE, but fortunately, the New York Public Library is in the midst of turning the CCE into a self-searchable format. however, even after this is complete, confirming that works without apparent renovations are in the public domain involves additional complexities. as of September 2019, the hathitrust copyright review program had completed this process with 506,989 US publications and determined that 302,915 (59.7%) are in the public domain and therefore may be available online . The work of the New York Public Library, Hathitrust, and other groups continues, with the goal of opening these public domain books to the public.
written by jennifer jenkins. a special thanks to our tirelessly talented research expert and website guru balfour smith for building this site and compiling the 1925 job list.
Public Domain Day 2021 from the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Unported License.
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