As the year comes to a close, Americans get ready for another list of classic cartoon characters, movies, novels, and audio recordings to enter the public domain. Under U.S. copyright law, these works can be legally shared without permission or fees. The rules vary depending on a variety of factors, but most source materials entering the public domain right now, are doing so 95 years after their initial publication.
Works of art copyrighted from 1930, such as William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage, the first four Nancy Drew novels, the first appearance of Betty Boop, and nine more classic Mickey Mouse cartoons — including the first appearance of Pluto (originally named Royer) — will be added to public domain as of January 1st, meaning that they will be free to use, share and adapt after nearly a century.
“Max and Dave Fleischer’s characters were drawn from the urban environment they knew so well. Vaudeville, dance-halls, diners, drinking, and drugs were routinely part of the hallucinogenic mayhem…On the other hand, Walt, his brother Roy, and best friend Ub Iwerks, the core of the early Disney enterprises, all had roots in rural middle America. With upbeat music and clever solutions, mechanical and animal troubles of all sorts were resolved with a simple, can-do attitude that Mickey and his pals exude,” said Casey Herbert, who teaches cartoon history at Duke.
There are big names in the world of animation and cartoons, such as Betty Boop, Pluto (originally named Rover, He wouldn’t officially become Mickey’s dog Pluto until 1931’s The Moose Hunt), and Blondie and Dagwood, which will be widely shared starting next year.
One work of art inspires another – that is how the public domain feeds creativity.”
