Partial list of signficant works entering into the public domain in the United States in 2024.
When the term of a copyright expires, the work enters the public domain, meaning that it may be freely reproduced, distributed, performed, displayed, and digitally transmitted, and derivative works may be made from it. In the United States, the terms of many works first published in 1928 expired on December 31, 2023.
There are three important caveats about this, however. First, derivative works based on a public domain work may still be protected by copyright. For example, even though Mickey Mouse, as he was portrayed in Steamboat Willy, is in the public domain now, subsequent versions of the character (for example, the version that appears in sorcerer’s garb in the later film, Fantasia) are still protected by copyright. For the same reason, even though a story or movie has entered into the public domain, new elements that were first introduced later, in a sequel or other derivative work, may still be protected by copyright.
Next, an element of a work that has entered the public domain insofar as copyright law is concerned might still be protected as a trademark in some cases. For example, Disney owns registered trademarks in Mickey Mouse. These may still be enforceable under trademark law even though the copyrights in them may have entered the public domain.
Finally, public domain rules vary from country to country. Works that are in the public domain in one country may still be protected by copyright under the laws of another country. This article addresses only U.S. copyright law.
Bearing those things in mind, here is a list of some of the major works that entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2024. The list is not exhaustive.
Literary Works
The House at Pooh Corner, by A. A. Milne. Subject to the caveats described above, this means Tigger is in the public domain now, since he was introduced in this book.
Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, the play by J. M. Barrie.
All Quiet on the Western Front, in the original German, by Erich Maria Remarque.
Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D. H. Lawrence.
Point Counter Point, by Aldous Huxley
The Mystery of the Blue Train (Hercule Poirot, #6), by Agatha Christie.
Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf.
Decline and Fall, by Evelyn Waugh.
Meet the Tiger, by Leslie Charteris.
Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation, by Margaret Mead.
The Missing Chums, Hunting for Hidden Gold, and The Shore Road Mystery (The Hardy Boys #4, 5 and 6), by Franklin W. Dixon.
Mr. Blettsworthy on Rampole Island, by H.G. Wells.
The Open Conspiracy, by H.G. Wells.
West-Running Brook, by Robert Frost.
The Tower, by W. B. Yeats.
Dark Princess, by W.E.B. DeBois.
The Well of Loneliness, by Radclyffe Hall.
The Trumpeter of Krakow, by Eric P. Kelly.
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág.
Story of the Eye by Georges Bataille.
The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht,
An American in Paris by George Gershwin.
Nadja, by André Breton.
The Childermass: Section I, by Wyndham Lewis.
Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, by Siegfried Sassoon.
Home to Harlem, by Claude McKay.
The Front Page, by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur.
Musical Works
“Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” by Cole Porter (music and lyrics)
Mack the Knife (original German lyrics by Bertolt Brecht and music by Kurt Weill.
I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, by Dorothy Fields and James Francis.
The Big Rock Candy Mountain, by Harry McClintock.
Motion Pictures
Steamboat Willie (featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse).
Plane Crazy (also featuring Mickey and Minnie Mouse) (silent version).
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Disney precursor to Mickey Mouse.
The Circus, starring and directed by Charlie Chaplin.
Speedy (Harold Lloyd)
Lights of New York, the first “all talking” full-length feature film.
The Cameraman (Buster Keaton).
October: Ten Days That Shook the World (Октябрь (Десять дней, которые потрясли мир), a Soviet silent film.
Should Married Men Go Home? the first Laurel and Hardy film to bill them as a team.
The Wedding March, directed by Erich von Stroheim.
Sound Recordings
NOTE: Later recordings of these songs may still be protected by copyright.
Charleston recorded by James P. Johnson.
Down-Hearted Blues recorded by Bessie Smith.
Yes! We Have No Bananas recorded by Billy Jones; Furman and Nash; Eddie Cantor; Belle Baker; The Lanin Orchestra.
Bambalina recorded by the Ray Miller Orchestra.
Southern Blues recorded by Ma Rainey.
Photographs
Karl Blossfeldt’s Urformen der Kunst
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