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Public Domain Day 2022
Center for the Study of the Public Domain
Duke University Web Site
So many things happen when the calendar rolls over! That includes the debut of creative endeavors in the Public Domain, from books to films to sound recordings!
On January 1, 2022, the USA saw several new entries in the public domain, including the beloved children's classic Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne. (That is, the A. A. Milne version is public domain. The Disney version may enter strange waters this year. See this article on the Duke site.) Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, along with many other silent films and over 400,000 sound recordings will also enter the US public domain on that date.
What does this mean? Mostly it means that these texts are now available for the public to publish or alter as they see fit. This applies in the USA, at any rate. Other countries have their own public domain laws and time limits, so if you are not the USA, the public domain will look different. But in the USA, these titles are now available for someone to post freely, say on gutenberg.org or other archival sites. Hopefully the folks at Gutenberg will have them up later this year. These titles are also free for others to alter or base other works on without royalties or fear of copyright infringement.
For a complete list of these works and for a more detailed explanation of the public domain, check out the Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain site. It hosts an article every year for Public Domain Day. It also features a great explanation for what public domain actually entails, including videos and lectures on public domain law.
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