Squeaking Into the Public Domain

American copyright is a strange beast. The law can be a bit complex, but to sum it up, a creator (or the creator’s estate) can hold exclusive copyright to a work for 70 years after the author’s death or 95 years after publication. After that time, the works are released to the public domain. When a work is in the public domain, it can be rebroadcast, reworked, streamed, performed, and so on and so forth free of charge! This can spur a massive amount of creativity and help bring to light some older classics.

Works entering the public domain this year include: 

• Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag (the oldest American picture book still in print)
• House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne (Tigger’s first appearance) 
• The Passion of Joan of Arc (a silent French film, often considered a landmark of cinema and known for its unique cinematography) 
• Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence (a book at the center of multiple famous obscenity trials) 
• Animal Crackers (a film by the Marx Brothers. The songs written for the film, such as “Hello I Must Be Going” and “Hooray for Captain Spaulding!” also enter the public domain). 
• The Man Who Laughs (an influential German Expressionist film, best known for its influence on Universal horror movies and the Batman villain the Joker)

Perhaps the entry that’s had people talking the most is Steamboat Willie, the first appearance of Mickey Mouse (and his girlfriend, Minnie Mouse), first released on November 18, 1928 and now in the public domain. What complicates the matter is that certain aspects of Mickey Mouse are still held by Disney. If you want to use Steamboat Willie in your next project, you’ll need to make it VERY clear that Disney is not associated. Likewise, aspects of Mickey or Minnie Mouse that were added in subsequent material are still held by copyright. Mickey’s iconic sorcerer’s hat? First debuted in Fantasia, so it’s still under copyright. Minnie’s pink hairbow? I can’t pinpoint an arrival date, but it’s not in Steamboat Willie —better leave that off.

So, what can you do with Steamboat Willie? More than you realize! Jennifer Jenkins, the director of the Duke Center for the Study of Public Domain, has a longer, more in-depth blog post about what creators can and can’t do with Mickey Mouse. To summarize it, anything as portrayed in the short Steamboat Willie is fair game to rework and remix. You can use the footage from the cartoon and make a music video set to “Sailing” by Christopher Cross or whatever other boat song you want. You can make an animated sequel that features WAY less animal abuse than the first short. You can write your magnum opus: Steamboat Willie: The Opera. So, have fun writing that comic book where Mickey Mouse and Sherlock Holmes team up to fight Dracula. Just know that when you do that, you should draw Mickey without gloves.

And if Mickey Mouse isn’t your thing? There are plenty of public domain works for you to remix. Check out this blog post for examples, featuring a twenty-first century Secret Garden, a murder mystery Pride and Prejudice, and Dracula via email. 

Katie Gill

Cataloging Librarian