Scholarly Communication Services

Public Domain Day 2024: Starring Steamboat Willie, Gershwin, and Chaplin

Steamboat Willie enters the public domain in 2024.

Public Domain Day is January 1 of every year to increase awareness of copyright and public domain, and to highlight the books, films, and other works that are free of copyright protection.

The stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve will bring more than celebrations and new beginnings for 2024. At that time, some of America’s most beloved characters enter the public domain along with other influential works.The year 2024 also brings new potential for using public domain images, books, music, and other creations.

January 1 is Public Domain Day.  Current US copyright law provides this protection for 95 years after a work’s creation. Once that period of time ends, the works enter the public domain on January 1 of each year, and their copyright protection ends.  Mickey Mouse, or its 1928 version as Steamboat Willie, enters the public domain in 2024, but alas, not Mickey from The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. That version was created in 1940, so it has copyright protection

Public domain works can be reused for just about anything! Tigger (the 1928 version) can have new adventures in a graphic novel, or George Gershwin’s An American in Paris can be repurposed, maybe as a rock opera. Public domain works can also be used for teaching purposes. Instructors can take a public domain book like Decline and Fall (by Evelyn Waugh) and use it for a textual analysis or assign their students to translate parts of it.

Charlie Chaplin's The Circus enters the public domain in 2024.

Here is a list of other notable works that will join Steamboat Willie in the public domain:

Movies:

• The Circus, by Charlie Chaplin
• In Old Arizona,, by Raoul Walsh and Irving Cummings
• The Passion of Joan Arc, Carl Theodor Dreyer

Books:

• The Mystery of the Blue Train, by Agatha Christie
• The House at Pooh Corner (along with Tigger as he appears in the book), by A.A. Milne
• Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D.H. Lawrence
• Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf

Music:

• The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht
• An American in Paris, by George Gershwin
• I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby, by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields

While creators rightfully deserve rewards from their work, public domain expands what is available for creative, teaching, and scholarly purposes. To learn more about copyright and the public domain, see the following sites:

• Center for the Study of Public Domain at Duke University School of Law:  https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/
• Public Domain Research Guide: https://libguides.fau.edu/copyright/public-domain
• Copyright for Teaching and Learning – Public Domain: https://libguides.fau.edu/copyright-for-teaching/public-domain

Image Credits:

• Alvan Hadley (1928). The Circus [Image]. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circus_(1928_film)#/media/File:The_Circus_(1928)_-_Hap_Hadley_poster.jpg. Public Domain image.
• Disney (1928). Steamboat Willie [Image]. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/27/business/mickey-mouse-disney-public-domain.html. Public Domain

Originality statement:  Posted on January 1, 2024 on FAU Libraries External Relations, Blog and News at https://library.fau.edu/external-relations/public-domain-day-2024-starring-steamboat-willie-gershwin-and-chaplin