Works in the public domain are creative materials like literature, music, and art (including moving art like television and film) that are ‘owned’ by the public. This ownership is transferred to the public in a number of ways but the key thing is that once the materials are explicitly designated public domain, they are now the public’s - everybody’s - property to access, copy, transform, remix, and adapt.
Public domain is a license to touch and alter and interact with these creative pieces. The glass cases of copyright are shattered and these jewels are placed into our hands. What you do with them, is up to you.
“The public domain is both the foundation for future creativity, and the most fundamental public library: stuff that has no barriers at all to access and to use.”
– libraries.mit.edu/public-domain
For many, materials entering the public domain is exciting and inspiring. Even more so when materials’ copyrights expire into the public domain, meaning they’re historical in nature. New public domain works from history provide a significant starting point for modern artists to bring fresh, fascinating creative material to the world that is richly steeped in historical U.S. art, literature, and music.
So every first day of the New Year, the U.S. has been celebrating the release of many creative materials that may serve that purpose to today’s artists, to whom mixed media, as well as inter- and meta-textuality, is no stranger.
If you’re wondering, “How have I never heard of this before?” the answer is that the first celebrated Public Domain Day in the United States was only three years ago in 2019. It is a young holiday!
In 1998 the Copyright Term Extension Act (also known derisively as ‘the Mickey Mouse Protection Act’ because Disney lobbied heavily in favor of the copyright extension so that Mickey Mouse wouldn’t expire into the public domain) was enacted. It froze copyrighted content for 20 years. And so, for 20 years, the United States’ public domain library has languished with almost no creative content expiring into it. 1998 to 2018 was like the dark, cold period of a fairy tale.
But then, at the end of the year 2018, those 20 years were up and things changed. January 1st, 2019 saw the release of copyrighted content from 1923 into the public domain.
2019 was a party among the public domain champions of the United States. The Internet Archive and Creative Commons non-profits hosted a party celebrating the ‘Grand Re-opening of the Public Domain’ on January 25th, 2019. Attended by scholars and members of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Wikimedia Foundation, it featured “legal thought leaders, lightning talks, demos, and the chance to play with these new public domain works.” Distinguished libraries got in on the festivities, too: MIT created and currently maintains a special section of their website to public domain works. Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain celebrates with comprehensive, insightful articles about the nature of public domain material and highlighting notable content newly available.
The public domain schedule has attracted a lot of anticipation and promises in the art world as well. Mickey Mouse will, at long last, expire into the public domain in 2024 and MSCHF, the American art collective based in Brooklyn, New York, known for its controversial and challenging pieces (including a modified pair of Nikes worn by a certain rapper and singer), is clearly planning something.
But right now, we are about to experience the fourth annual Public Domain Day in the United States come January 1st, 2022. We'll see a wave release of copyrighted content from 1926 that has its own gems, including approximately 400,000 sound recordings from the pre-1923 era as a result of the recently enacted Music Modernization Act. That is why The Internet Archive and Creative Commons' virtual and in-person events this year are titled "A Celebration of Sound." To learn more about their plans, visit the Internet Archive's article about it, as well as Creative Commons' article, and sign up to attend their virtual party January 20th.
While it is common for news, academic, and even pop culture articles to get written about the ‘best’ new content that’s expired into the public domain, I recommend the website Public Domain Review which is a not-for-profit online journal with “the sole mission objective to help all people access and enjoy notable public domain works.”
With all that in mind, here’s to wishing everyone a happy New Year and an inspired Public Domain Day, 2022!