Since 2019, every January 1st, the public domain frees more works that copyright laws kept locked up. On this glorious Public Domain Day, works created in 1930 and sound recordings from 1925 are made available to everyone in the United States, at least, to use as they wish. We are free to enjoy and share these works without paying anyone for them. We can create new works from these old works by remixing them or repurposing them to our heart’s content.

This January 1st is special for Pirates because it is the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Swedish Pirate Party. It is fitting that both events should occur on the same day and we wish the Swedish Pirates a happy 20th anniversary!

As a celebration for this year’s Public Domain Day, the Internet Archive has a contest to explore and reimagine the creative treasures entering the public domain, especially works from 1930 that entered the public domain on January 1. Contestants must upload a 2-3 minute short film to the Internet Archive that uses at least one work published in 1930 that joined the public domain on January 1, 2026. This could be a poem, book, film, musical composition, painting, photograph or any other work that is now in the Public Domain. All submissions must be submitted by January 7, 2026 at 11:59pm PST. You can find more details on the contest at the Internet Archive.

As they do every year, Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle of the Duke University Center for the Study of the Public Domain have a detailed, but brief list, of what new public domain works we have. A number of characters are now in the public domain, including Betty Boop, Disney’s Rover (later renamed Pluto) and Blondie and Dagwood. Below is a short list with links to copies at the Internet Archive and elsewhere.

Books

• William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying – At the Internet Archive
• Dashiell Hammett, The Maltese Falcon (the full book version) – At the Internet Archive
• Agatha Christie, The Murder at the Vicarage (the first novel featuring Miss Marple) – At the Internet Archive
• Carolyn Keene, the first four Nancy Drew books – At the Internet Archive
• Watty Piper, [em]The Little Engine That Could[/em] (the popular illustrated version, with drawings by Lois Lenski) – At the Internet Archive
• John Dos Passos, The 42nd Parallel
• Edna Ferber, Cimarron – At the Internet Archive
• Dorothy L. Sayers, Strong Poison – At the Internet Archive
• Olaf Stapledon, Last and First Men

Films

• All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone (winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture) – At the Internet Archive
• King of Jazz, directed by John Murray Anderson (musical revue featuring Paul Whiteman and Bing Crosby’s first feature-film appearance) – At the Internet Archive
• Animal Crackers, directed by Victor Heerman (starring the Marx Brothers)
• Soup to Nuts, directed by Benjamin Stoloff (written by Rube Goldberg, featuring later members of The Three Stooges) – At the Internet Archive
• Morocco, directed by Josef von Sternberg (starring Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, and Adolphe Menjou) – At the Internet Archive
• Anna Christie, directed by Clarence Brown (Greta Garbo’s first talkie) – At the Internet Archive
• Murder!, directed by Alfred Hitchcock – At the Internet Archive
• L’Âge d’Or, directed by Luis Buñuel, written by Buñuel and Salvador Dalí – At the Internet Archive
• Whoopee!, directed by Thornton Freeland

Musical Compositions

• Four Songs – I Got Rhythm, I’ve Got a Crush on You, But Not for Me, and Embraceable You – with lyrics by Ira Gershwin, music by George Gershwin
• Dream a Little Dream of Me, lyrics by Gus Kahn, music by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt
• On the Sunny Side of the Street, lyrics by Dorothy Fields, music by Jimmy McHugh
• Just a Gigolo (the first English translation), original German lyrics by Julius Brammer, English translation by Irving Caesar, music by Leonello Casucci
• The Royal Welch Fusiliers, by John Philip Sousa

Sound Recordings

• Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen, recorded by Marian Anderson
• Yes Sir, That’s My Baby, recorded by Gene Austin – At the Internet Archive
• You’ve Been A Good Old Wagon, recorded by Bessie Smith
• The St. Louis Blues, recorded by Bessie Smith, featuring Louis Armstrong
• Fascinating Rhythm, recorded by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra
• I’ll See You in My Dreams, recorded by Isham Jones, with Ray Miller’s Orchestra
• Everybody Loves My Baby (but My Baby Don’t Love Nobody but Me), recorded by Clarence Williams’ Blue Five – Recording

We’ll talk about Public Domain Day on the next Pirate News. See you then!

Image Credit: Public Domain

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