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Public Domain Day

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"PD Day" redirects here. For "professional development days" in education, seeInset day.

Public Domain Day
Official nameInternational Public Domain Day
Also calledPDD
DateJanuary 1
Next timeJanuary 1, 2025(2025-01-01)
Frequencyannual

Public Domain Day(PDD) is an observance of whencopyrightsexpire and works enter into thepublic domain.[1]This legal transition of copyright works into the public domain usually happens every year on January 1 based on the individualcopyright laws of each country.[1]

The observance of a "Public Domain Day" was initially informal; the earliest known mention was in 2004 by Wallace McLean (a Canadian public domain activist),[2]with support for the idea echoed byLawrence Lessig.[3]Several websites list the authors whose works are entering the public domain each January 1. There are activities in countries around the world by various organizations all under the banner Public Domain Day.

Public domain

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Main article:Public domain
A public domain photo from a public domain celebration in 2016 (Brussels,Felix Redaspeaking)

Copyright protection terms are typically described as expiring a number of years after the end of the calendar year when the author died (post mortem auctorisorpma).[4][5]Durationsvary by country;in many jurisdictions, including the US and European Union, copyright usually lasts 70 yearspma.[6][5]In such countries, the works of authors who died in 1954 will pass into the public domain on January 1, 2025. These works become fully available so that anyone can access and use them for any purpose, without authorization.[5]

Since public domain rights vary based on jurisdiction, the passage of a work into the public domain is not worldwide.[7]In the United States, no additional published works entered the public domain automatically from 1999 to 2018.[7][8]Each year, most European countries see various works passing into the public domain, as do Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.[3][5][7][9]

Public Domain Day in 2010 celebrated the entry to the public domain in many countries of the works of authors such asSigmund Freud,William Butler Yeats,Ford Madox FordandArthur Rackham.[1]In 2011, it celebrated the public domain status ofIsaac Babel,Walter Benjamin,John Buchan,Mikhail Bulgakov,F. Scott Fitzgerald,Emma Goldman,Paul Klee,Selma Lagerlöf,Leon Trotsky,Vito Volterra,Nathanael West,and others.[10]

Significant materials entering the public domain in 2021 included: F. Scott Fitzgerald'sThe Great Gatsby,Virginia Woolf'sMrs. Dalloway,Ernest Hemingway'sIn Our Time,Franz Kafka'sThe Trial,and the jazz standard "Sweet Georgia Brown".[11]

In 2025, Copyrighted works from 1929 will enter the US Public Domain.

Celebrations and milestones

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Public Domain Day celebration in Poland (2008)
Public Domain Day 2020 celebration in Indonesia

There is no explicit time when Public Domain Day began being observed (it was mentioned byLawrence Lessigin 2004[3]), but in recent years it has been mentioned byProject Gutenberg[12]and has been promoted byCreative Commons.[13]Public Domain Day events have been hosted on various dates in Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy andIsrael.[14][15]

In January 2011, to celebrate Public Domain Day 2011, Open Knowledge Foundation launchedThe Public Domain Review,a web-based review of works which have entered the public domain.[16][17]

In January 2012, a celebration was announced inWarsaw,Poland,[18]and for the first time inKraków,[19]where for several years on that day various activities have been organized byfree cultureNGOs (such asKoalicja Otwartej EdukacjiandOpen Society Institute) and other supporters.[20][21]Other 2012 events announced worldwide:[22]

  • Switzerland: Public Domain Jam,Zurich
  • Israel: PD Day Celebration atHaifa University,Haifa
  • North Macedonia:Events and promotional activities on the Public Domain
  • Italy:
    • La giornata del Pubblico Dominio,Turin
    • Festeggiamo il Giorno del Pubblico Dominio, Rome
    • Celebriamo il Giorno del Pubblico Dominio e la Cultura Libera,Grosseto
  • France: Journée du domaine public, Paris

In later years, Public Domain Day events have been organized byCommunia,which also maintained the (now defunct) publicdomainday.org website.[citation needed]

2019

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Public Domain Day in 2019 was significant in the United States as it was the first year to have any meaningful copyright expirations there since the event's establishment: a 20-year freeze had been imposed in 1998 with the passage of the Sonny BonoCopyright Term Extension Act.[23]Several activities were carried to celebrate the event, including a special section at the MIT Libraries for public domain works[24]and the "Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain"[25]that took place at the Internet Archive with the presence of members of Creative Commons, theElectronic Frontier Foundationand theWikimedia Foundation,among other scholars likePam Samuelson,Lawrence Lessig and James Boyle.[citation needed]

2022

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In 2022 in the United States, in addition to works published in 1926 that had had their copyright renewed, about 400,000 sound recordings from before 1923 also passed into the public domain under theCLASSICS Act.[26]

2024

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On 2024's Public Domain Day, all published works from 1928 entered the public domain. This included the animated short filmSteamboat Willie,featuringMickey Mouse,a subject of significant copyright interest. The inclusion of this work was a landmark event, ending years of controversies, althoughDisney might still claim trademark rights on Mickey Mouse.Additionally, all sound recordings from 1923 entered into the public domain.[27]No sound recordings had entered the public domain in 2023, as all pre-1923 recordings already entered into the public domain in 2022. However, recordings from 1923–1946 enter the public domain on January 1 of the yearaftertheir 100th year after publication. Thus, a recording published in June 1923, for example, would have entered the public domain on January 1, 2024.[28]

See also

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References

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  1. ^abcRichmond, Shane (January 1, 2010)."Happy Public Domain Day! Here's to many more – Telegraph Blogs".Blogs.telegraph.co.uk. Archived fromthe originalon January 5, 2010.RetrievedDecember 24,2011.
  2. ^Happy Public Domain Day!ArchivedJune 3, 2017, at theWayback Machine,Wallace J.McLean, January 1, 2004.
  3. ^abcLessig, Lawrence (January 1, 2004)."public domain day – in Canada (Lessig Blog)".Lessig.org. Archived fromthe originalon July 1, 2007.RetrievedJuly 1,2011.
  4. ^"Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988: Section 12",legislation.gov.uk,The National Archives,November 15, 1988, 1988 c. 48 (s. 12),Copyright expires at the end of the period of 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author dies...
  5. ^abcd"About | Public Domain Day – 1 January 2012".Public Domain Day. Archived fromthe originalon January 6, 2010.RetrievedDecember 24,2011.
  6. ^Hirtle, Peter B."Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States".copyright.cornell.edu.RetrievedJanuary 1,2021.
  7. ^abc"Public Domain Day".Law.duke.edu.RetrievedDecember 24,2011.
  8. ^Anderson, Nate (January 4, 2010)."Nothing to celebrate on Public Domain Day 2010 in the US".Arstechnica.com.RetrievedDecember 24,2011.
  9. ^Smith, Ali (January 2, 2024)."Public Domain Day 2024".Wikimedia Australia.RetrievedAugust 29,2024.[better source needed]
  10. ^"Authors entering the Public Domain in 2011 | Public Domain Day – 1 January 2012".Public Domain Day. Archived fromthe originalon December 22, 2011.RetrievedDecember 24,2011.
  11. ^"Public Domain Day 2021".Duke University School of Law.
  12. ^"January 1, 2011 is going to be Public Domain Day – Project Gutenberg News".Gutenbergnews.org. September 24, 2011.RetrievedDecember 25,2011.
  13. ^"Public Domain Day".Creative Commons.RetrievedDecember 25,2011.
  14. ^Carlos, Juan (December 12, 2011)."Public Domain Day 2012 | International Communia Association".Communia-association.org.RetrievedDecember 24,2011.
  15. ^"PD Day Celebration at Haifa University".Haifa Center for Law and Technology,Haifa University.May 1, 2011. Archived fromthe originalon January 25, 2012.RetrievedJanuary 27,2012.
  16. ^"Launch of the Public Domain Review to celebrate Public Domain Day 2011",Open Knowledge Foundation blog, January 1, 2011.
  17. ^Wesner, Samantha."The Public Domain Review".The Public Domain Review.
  18. ^"Jak świętowaliśmy Dzień Domeny Publicznej 2012 | Domena Publiczna".
  19. ^"Obchody Dnia Domeny Publicznej w Krakowie | Domena Publiczna".
  20. ^"Report from Public Domain Day 2011 in Poland | Dzień Domeny Publicznej 2012"(in Polish). Domenapubliczna.org. December 31, 2010.RetrievedDecember 26,2011.
  21. ^"Dzień Domeny Publicznej 2012 | uwalniamy artefakty kultury!"(in Polish). Domenapubliczna.org.RetrievedDecember 24,2011.
  22. ^"P.D. Day 2012 Celebrations".COMMUNIA.RetrievedDecember 30,2011.
  23. ^Holmes, Helen (December 31, 2018)."2019 Will Gift Us With a Huge Release of Copyrighted Works Entering the Public Domain".Observer.RetrievedJanuary 3,2019.
  24. ^"MIT Libraries".RetrievedDecember 6,2019.
  25. ^Bailey, Lila (December 5, 2018)."Join us for A Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain | Internet Archive Blogs".RetrievedDecember 6,2019.
  26. ^Jenkins, Jennifer."Public Domain Day 2022".Center for the Study of the Public Domain.Duke University.RetrievedJanuary 7,2022.
  27. ^Jenkins, Jennifer (2023)."January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are open to all!".Center for the Study of the Public Domain.Duke University. Footnote #3.RetrievedDecember 8,2023.
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