Happy Public Domain Day! Popeye, ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ ‘The Sound and the Fury’ and Thousands of Other Captivating Creations Are Finally Free for Everyone to Use; Smithsonian Magazine, December 30, 2024

Ellen Wexler, Smithsonian Magazine ; Happy Public Domain Day! Popeye, ‘Rhapsody in Blue,’ ‘The Sound and the Fury’ and Thousands of Other Captivating Creations Are Finally Free for Everyone to Use

"On January 1, 2025, Popeye—along with thousands of other copyrighted creations—will enter the public domain in the United States.

Every year, Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke University School of Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, publishes an exhaustive analysis of some of the most important works entering the public domain. This year, the list includes copyrighted titles from 1929 and sound recordings from 1924.

Works enter the public domain when their copyrights expire, typically 95 years after publication. At that point, they become free for anyone to adapt or build upon without permission—with a few caveats. Copyrights to audio recordings, meanwhile, expire 100 years after they were first put to wax...

As Jenkins points out, many of the celebrated classics entering the public domain this year were themselves built atop other public domain works. Disney featured more than a dozen copyright-free songs in its 1929 Mickey cartoons. William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, which enters public domain on January 1, gets its name from Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “[Life] is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, / Signifying nothing.” Faulkner, Jenkins writes, is an “author of a timeless work that took from the public domain and now gives back to it.”"

Popeye and Tintin will soon lose copyright protection; Axios, December 27, 2024

• Rebecca Falconer , Axios; Popeye and Tintin will soon lose copyright protection

"Fun fact: The character Buck Rogers "first appeared in 1929 and is public domain in 2025, but technically the futuristic space hero has already been copyright-free for decades, despite claims that he was still copyrighted," Jenkins writes.

• "This is because the copyright registration for the Buck Rogers comic strip was not renewed, so that its copyright expired after 28 years. Also, the original version of the character was actually introduced in a novella as 'Anthony Rogers' in 1928; that character has long been public domain as well.""

Popeye, Tintin and more will enter the public domain in the new year; NPR, December 26, 2024

 Rachel Treisman, NPR; Popeye, Tintin and more will enter the public domain in the new year

"The main thing they have in common is their age — under U.S. copyright law, their terms all expire after 95 years. All of the works entering the public domain next year are from 1929, except for sound recordings, which (because they are covered by a different law) come from 1924.

"Copyright's awesome … but the fact that rights eventually expire, that's a good thing, too, because that's the wellspring for creativity," says Jennifer Jenkins, the director of Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, which spends months poring over records to compile the most famous examples.

Once in the public domain, these works become fodder for remakes, spinoffs and other adaptations."

All these iconic artworks and characters lose copyright in 2025; Creative Bloq, December 7, 2024

Joe Foley , Creative Bloq; All these iconic artworks and characters lose copyright in 2025

"You may have been lucky enough to avoid the gruesome Winnie the Pooh horror movies of the last couple of years, but there are more such irreverent delights to come as more intellectual property loses copyright protection in 2025. A host of famous artworks and much-loved characters will enter the public realm next year, making them fair game for all kinds of adaptations.

Last year, Mickey Mouse was the biggest star to come out of copyright (with a few caveats). So what's coming in 2025? A gruesome Popeye the Sailor for starters (that looks set to be almost as controversial as the Snow White remake)."