Public Domain Day 2019

Waaaaaay back in 1998, the US Congress extended the length of copyright by 20 years, so instead of items items entering the public domain after 75 years, it would take 95 years. Well, guess what? Starting January 1st, 2019 thousands of items from 1923 entered the public domain. (OK, it is a wee bit more complicated than that, but for now we are focusing on the items that are entering the public domain in 2019.)

“So what?” I hear you ask. Are you kidding me!!?!?!!!? There’s all sorts of great stuff for you to watch, listen to, or read at no cost, as well as use for your own creative projects now that new items are in the public domain. Here are some examples:

There’s the Harold Lloyd film “Safety Last”

Or the wonderful children’s book “The ABC Book”

There’s the toe-tapping song, “Barney Google (with the Goo-Goo-Googly Eyes)”

There are tons and tons of items that are now in the public domain. This means you can use the items in your own creative projects, or broadcast them, or whatever you like and not have to worry about infringing on someone’s copyright. It will be very interesting to see what sort of creative projects people come up with in the future.

Would you like to learn more? Then surf on over to Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain’s webpage about Public Domain Day 2019.