Public Domain 2024
Happy new Year!
For January’s Freeform, it feels right to cover some notable works coming into the public domain as of the 1st of January this year. While at first I thought this would be a pretty quick list to bring together, with a few notes about my gripes with a certain mouse and the company that contributed to the mess that public domain laws are today, low and behold I have been diving into forums and posts trying to parse copyright laws between various countries and convoluted rules to figure out if the mouse in question has even entered the public domain in the UK. Long story short, yes Steamboat Willie is in the public domain in the UK… I think.
In the US, books and films (including artworks featured) that were published in 1928 are now in the public domain as of 2024, however this law only applies if you are living in the US. In the likes of the UK and EU, works enter the public domain 70 years after the persons death. For some countries this is 50 years. This creates a bit of an issue when searching for public domain material, as some works can be public domain in one place, but not another. When looking at Mickey Mouse as an example, Steamboat Willie was published in 1928 so it is public domain in the US, but the artist who designed Mickey Mouse, Urb Iwerks, died in 1971 meaning that in the UK Mickey wouldn’t be in the public domain until 2042. However this isn’t the case as UK legislation states that:
“Where the country of origin is not the United Kingdom and the author of the film is not a national of the United Kingdom, the duration of copyright is that to which the work is entitled in the country of origin, provided that does not exceed the period which would apply under subsections (2) to (6).” Subsection 6 refers to works which are published simultaneously in multiple countries (within 30 days).
So in this instance, because Steamboat Willie was published in the US in 1928, and not in the UK until a year later, the copyright for Steamboat Willie in the UK actually uses the US system.
You can see how this creates a situation where it could put someone off trying to use a given piece of material despite having a legal right to do whatever they would like with it. This works to the original copyright holder’s benefit, even if their work is in the public domain, if it’s confusing to know whether you can use it or not people won’t want to accidentally find themselves in legal trouble with the likes of Disney or other big companies.
On that note, these companies have no responsibility to make their public domain material accessible. This is another way companies such as Disney can restrict your use of public domain works, even if you know something is in the public domain, if there isn’t an easy way to access that material, or find high quality versions of it, you will have to find a source yourself. Maybe this isn’t much of a problem for notable works, but if you were looking for something that isn’t as well known, you could find yourself with no easy way to access it.
A downloadable version of Steamboat Willie can be found here on The Internet Archive.
Right, moving on to more interesting works now.
If you would like to find more notable works entering the public domain I would recommend having a look through Public Domain Review’s Happy Public Domain Day 2024! Blog post as well as Duke University’s Public Domain Day 2024 Post.
While it can be interesting to have a look every year at works entering the public domain, it also comes with frustration. It is my belief that the length of time given to a copyright holder is far too long. To think that almost a century of time is somehow reasonable for someone to be able to stop you from using something is absurd. By the time a lot of works enter the public domain they are no longer culturally relevant. While some pieces of art manage to stand the test of time and less known works can be used to create exciting new pieces of work, by the time they are actually available without restriction the moment has very much passed.
The argument you will see from people who agree with these laws is that it encourages innovation and creativity and stops people from creating low effort replicas of something that already exists. It’s quite a pessimistic outlook, to believe that the few people attempting to make a quick buck by making NFTs out of recognisable characters outweighs the potential good of allowing people to iterate on stories and works in order to create something that is larger than one persons interpretation. There’s already a lot of writing on this topic, and I encourage anyone to look a little further into it if interested. Below you will find articles and sites I used to write this blog, which may be a good place to start.
Articles and websites referenced for this blog:
Public Domain Review - Happy Public Domain Day 2024!
Public Domain Image Library - Public Domain Copyright Rules – US and UK Criteria Explained
Duke University School of Law - Public Domain Day 2024
Duke University School of Law - Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain: a 95-year Love Triangle
Reddit (so big pinch of salt) - Is Mickey Mouse going public domain in the UK too?
Legislation.gov.uk - Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
IMDb - Steamboat Willie
Open Music Archive - FAQ