The Public Domain Newsletter

The Public Domain Newsletter

April 2024, vol. 1, no. 1

by Jennifer Jenkins, with research from Sean Dudley

Each year on January 1, the Center for the Study of the Public Domain celebrates Public Domain Day with its annual article about newly public domain works. But why wait until New Year’s to think about the public domain? This month, we are launching The Public Domain Newsletter, an occasional publication that fills that gap. It will give you information about what works are due to enter the public domain, what has happened to works that have just been freed, and much more. This is Volume 1, Number 1, a collector’s item for sure.

Welcome to the public domain, Mickey!

Image of Steamboat Willie Entering the Public Domain by Doo Lee

2024 has been off to a busy start with the long-anticipated arrival of Mickey Mouse and Steamboat Willie in the public domain. Creators have released new games and stories, including a comic that picks up where Steamboat Willie ends. Comedian John Oliver has been showcasing a “Steamboat Mickey” mascot. CBS Sunday Morning even aired a Mickey-inspired celebration of the public domain featuring an interview with CSPD Director Jennifer Jenkins.

This is just the beginning of Mickey’s new life in the public domain. Next year, over a dozen Mickey Mouse cartoons from 1929 will join Steamboat Willie in the public domain. These cartoons continue Disney’s innovative experiments with synchronized sound and include The Karnival Kid, the first film in which Mickey speaks intelligible words. His first words? “Hot dogs! Hot dogs!”

Like other Disney works, The Karnival Kid builds upon prior public domain material. To attract an audience for Minnie Mouse’s “shimmy dancer” performance, the Karnival barker riffs on a 19th Century tune known as “the snake charmer song.” This melody has also been featured in numerous other Disney cartoons and may be familiar to readers from the scores of additional reuses in works ranging from The Simpsons to Ke$ha’s Take It Off.

Clara Bow takes a bow

In previous Public Domain Day articles, we have discussed the sobering fact that much of our silent film heritage is lost to history.

Movie still from a 1923 short comedy

One silent film that was lost until recently is The Pill Pounder, a short comedy from 1923 starring Charles Murray and Clara Bow. (An image from the film is to the right.)

Bow was a 1920s sex symbol who was dubbed the “It girl.” She has been described by biographer David Stenn as “the first truly liberated woman on screen,” and is often cited as one of the inspirations for the Betty Boop character (along with singer Helen Kane). Her legend endures: Taylor Swift’s new album – released this month – includes a song titled “Clara Bow.”

The Pill Pounder was rediscovered last year in Omaha, Nebraska. Because it is in the public domain, the film was able to be restored without having to obtain copyright permission. This month the restored film was screened at the San Francisco Silent Film Festival—the first time an audience has had the opportunity to see Clara Bow’s early performance on the big screen in over a century.

Looking ahead...

When Mickey Mouse entered the public domain this year, he joined a host of other public domain characters—Winnie-the-Pooh, Sherlock Holmes, Snow White, Cinderella, Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, Robin Hood, Santa Claus, and the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, to name a few. Think of all of the works reimagining these characters. In the past year there was the film Poor Things, featuring Emma Stone’s very different take on Frankenstein’s monster, and Renfield, with Nicolas Cage as Dracula. Later this year, the musical film Wicked will offer origin stories for the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

In the coming years, there is a lot to look forward to. Creators will be free to build upon an exciting cast of additional characters, including the original versions of Popeye the Sailor in 2025, Betty Boop and Pluto (originally named Rover) in 2026, Goofy in 2028 (originally named Dippy Dawg), Mary Poppins and Donald Duck in 2030, Superman in 2034, Batman in 2035, Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny in 2036, and Wonder Woman in 2037.

Is Mickey a harbinger of change?

As the Director of the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, one of my main roles is to inform people about the public domain’s little-known but vital role in our science, art, and culture. Sometimes that feels like an uphill battle, but this year—given the unprecedented attention that Mickey’s emergence attracted—it seemed like things were changing. There were hundreds, if not thousands, of media mentions of the Center’s annual review of the public domain. Media outlets seemed to appreciate more than ever the importance of the public domain for both cultural access and cultural innovation. From the comments and questions we received, so did their audience. Perhaps it is too optimistic to believe that the increased attention would translate into better policy on issues of copyright and access, but one can hope. It would be wonderfully ironic if Mickey—who for so long stood as a symbol of copyright term extension—should now be the poster child of a public domain renaissance.

The creative commons 4.0 license logo

The Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain April 2024 Newsletter by Jennifer Jenkins is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

 

Music Book Comic Cover
Read our comic book about music!