NEW YORK (AFP) – Thousands of works of art, ranging from “A Farewell to Arms” to the cartoon character “Popeye the Sailor,” will enter the public domain in the United States on Wednesday.
U.S. copyright law expires in 1995 for books, movies, and other works of art, but sound recordings made after 1924 are also copyright-free.
By entering the public domain, anyone can copy, share, reproduce, and modify the work without paying any fees to the rights holder.
This year's crop includes internationally known figures such as Tintin, a cartoon character who debuted in a Belgian newspaper in 1929, and Popeye the Sailor, created by cartoonist Elsie Crisler Seeger. .
Every December, the Center for Public Domain Research releases a list of cultural works that will lose copyright in the new year.
File/Poster for Dave Fleischer's 1937 animated short comedy “Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's 40 Thieves.'' (Movie Poster Image Art/Getty Images)
The center, part of Duke University School of Law in the southeastern state of North Carolina, makes the list publicly available on its website.
“In recent years we have celebrated an exciting cast of public domain characters, including the original Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh, and the final version of Sherlock Holmes to appear in Arthur Conan Doyle's stories. ” Jennifer Jenkins, the center's director, said on its website.
“In 2025, the copyright on more aspects of Mickey's 1929 incarnation will expire, along with earlier versions of Popeye and Tintin.”
FILE/Actors Jean-Pierre Talbot (right) and Georges Wilson, dressed as Tintin and Captain Haddock from the new film Tintin and the Golden Fleece, at Orly Airport in Paris on July 3, 1961. arrival. (Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
Among the literary works that entered the U.S. public domain on January 1st are William Faulkner's novel “The Sound and the Fury,” Ernest Hemingway's “A Farewell to Arms,” and Virginia Woolf's “A Room of One's Own.” ”, and includes the first English version. Translated “Quiet on the Western Front'' by German author Erich Maria Remarque.
Films that will be in the public domain include Alfred Hitchcock's “Blackmail'' and Oscar-winning director John Ford's first sound film, “Blackwatch.''
Songs released in 1929, such as French composer Maurice Ravel's “Bolero” and George Gershwin's “An American in Paris,” lose their copyright, but only recordings made before 1924 are in the public domain. becomes.
