What is the Public Domain?

 

What is the Public Domain?

January 1^st was Public Domain Day. Did you bake a cake and celebrate? Why not? Probably because you weren’t sure what public domain means and how it applies to writers.

What is the public domain? (Note this only applies to U.S. law)

Creative works that are in the public domain may be used freely, without obtaining permission from or compensating the copyright owner. This year, orchestras can perform Puttin’ on the Ritz by Irving Berlin for free. If you’ve been singing Ice Scream, You Scream we all Scream for Ice Scream all these years without compensating Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert A. King, shame on you. It only entered the public domain this year. Nor do you need permission from Arthur Conan Doyle’s descendants to quote swaths verbatim of The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes. It’s now in the public domain.

Public domain works can be used with abandon. Content that isn't protected by copyright law, may not be protected for a variety of reasons, including the following:

1. The duration of copyright in the work has expired. In the U.S., a book’s copyright expires 70 years after the death of the author.

2. Works produced by the federal government don't have copyright protection. However, a work produced by a government consultant may have protection or the original copyright may have been transferred to the government.

3. A work not fixed in a tangible form, such as a speech, lecture or improvisational comedy act that hasn't been previously written or recorded in any manner isn’t protected. Sorry, stand-up comedians. If you don’t have an HBO special or a recording on social media your jokes are up for grabs.

4. Prior to March 1, 1989, a copyright notice was necessary on published works or they went into the public domain. After that date, it wasn’t necessary. Note: if you are a self-published author, you don’t need the © with a date on a front piece. You’re already protected by copyright law.

Some things are always in the public domain.

1. Titles of books or movies, short phrases and slogans, lettering or coloring. (Yes, navy blue I’m looking at you.)

2. News, history, facts, or ideas, but a description of an idea in text or images may be protected by copyright. You don’t need to cite anyone if you describe December 7, 1942 as a date that will live in infamy.

3. Plots, characters and themes from works of fiction. (Well, thank God for that or the seven bajillion versions of Emma, Romeo and Juliet, or Cinderella would be illegal.)

Here’s sampling from the 2023 list of items now in the public domain.

Books

Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop

A. A. Milne, Now We Are Six

Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Ernest Hemingway, Men Without Women

William Faulkner, Mosquitoes

Agatha Christie, The Big Four

Edith Wharton, Twilight Sleep

Franklin W. Dixon (pseudonym), The Tower Treasure (the first Hardy Boys book)

Hermann Hesse, Der Steppenwolf (in the original German)

Movies

Metropolis (directed by Fritz Lang)

The Jazz Singer (the first feature-length film)

Wings (winner of the first Academy Award for outstanding picture)

The Kid Brother (starring Harold Lloyd; directed by Ted Wilde)

The Battle of the Century (starring Laurel and Hardy)

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (animated shorts; Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney)

Music

The Best Things in Life Are Free (George Gard De Sylva, Lew Brown, Ray Henderson)

I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream (H. Johnson, B. Moll, R. A. King)

Puttin’ on the Ritz (Irving Berlin)

Funny Face and ’S Wonderful (Ira and George Gershwin)

Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man and Ol’ Man River (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern)

Back Water Blues, Preaching the Blues, Foolish Man Blues (Bessie Smith)

Black and Tan Fantasy and East St. Louis Toodle-O (Bub Miley, Duke Ellington)

My Blue Heaven (George Whiting, Walter Donaldson)