January 1, 2021 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1925 are open to all!
By Jennifer Jenkins, Director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain
On January 1, 2021, copyrighted works from 1925 will enter the US public domain,1 where they will be free for all to use and build upon. These works include books such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial (in the original German), silent films featuring Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, and music ranging from the jazz standard Sweet Georgia Brown to songs by Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, W.C. Handy, and Fats Waller. This is not just the famous last line from The Great Gatsby. It also encapsulates what the public domain is all about. A culture is a continuing convers… Continue Reading (14 minute read)