For the first time in over 20 years, on January 1, 2019, these published works entered the US public domain.
(January 1, 2019 : via the Duke University Law School Center for the Study of the Public Domain)
“For the first time in over 20 years, on January 1, 2019, these published works entered the US public domain. Works from 1923 will be free for all to use and build upon, without permission or fee. They include dramatic films such as The Ten Commandments, and comedies featuring Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. There are literary works by Robert Frost, Aldous Huxley, and Edith Wharton, the “Charleston” song, and more. And remember, this has not happened for over 20 years. Why? Works from 1923 were set to go into the public domain in 1999, after a 75-year copyright term. But in 1998 Congress hit a two-decade pause button and extended their copyright term for 20 years, giving works published between 1923 and 1977 an expanded term of 95 years.”
Here are some of the works that entered the public domain on Tuesday.
)Films
- Safety Last!, directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor, featuring Harold Lloyd
- The Ten Commandments, directed by Cecil B. DeMille
- The Pilgrim, directed by Charlie Chaplin
- Our Hospitality, directed by Buster Keaton and John G. Blystone
- The Covered Wagon, directed by James Cruze
- Scaramouche, directed by Rex Ingram
Books
- Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan and the Golden Lion
- Agatha Christie, The Murder on the Links
- Winston S. Churchill, The World Crisis
- e.e. cummings, Tulips and Chimneys
- Robert Frost, New Hampshire
- Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
- Aldous Huxley, Antic Hay
- D.H. Lawrence, Kangaroo
- Bertrand and Dora Russell, The Prospects of Industrial Civilization
- Carl Sandberg, Rootabaga Pigeons
- Edith Wharton, A Son at the Front
- P.G. Wodehouse, works including The Inimitable Jeeves and Leave it to Psmith
- Viginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room
Music
- Yes! We Have No Bananas, w.&m. Frank Silver & Irving Cohn
- Charleston, w.&m. Cecil Mack & James P. Johnson
- London Calling! (musical), by Noel Coward
- Who’s Sorry Now, w. Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby, m. Ted Snyder
- Songs by “Jelly Roll” Morton including Grandpa’s Spells, The Pearls, and Wolverine Blues (w. Benjamin F. Spikes & John C. Spikes; m. Ferd “Jelly Roll” Morton)
- Works by Bela Bartok including the Violin Sonata No. 1 and the Violin Sonata No. 2
- Tin Roof Blues, m. Leon Roppolo, Paul Mares, George Brunies, Mel Stitzel, & Benny Pollack