Author Archives: John Mark Ockerbloom

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About John Mark Ockerbloom

I'm a digital library strategist at the University of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia.

Yes! We’ll have new recordings

Posted on November 3, 2023 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Five years ago, the US public domain started growing again after a 20-year freeze. In 2019 #PublicDomainDay parties featured 95-year old music like the 1923 novelty song “Yes! We Have No Bananas”. Sound recordings got longer copyrights, but in 2024 … Continue reading →

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If you believe in the public domain, clap your hands

Posted on November 2, 2023 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Peter Pan debuted on stage in 1904, but the play is not yet public domain. The title character is, due to a 1911 novelization, but the play script, with Peter’s appeal to the audience to clap their hands if they … Continue reading →

Posted in publicdomain | Tagged | 1 Comment

Starting to count down to Public Domain Day 2024

Posted on November 1, 2023 by John Mark Ockerbloom

The year 2024 is just two months away. It’s a milestone year, not least because a lot of creative works will be entering the public domain, including some very famous ones, and a lot of lesser known ones that have … Continue reading →

Posted in publicdomain | Tagged | 3 Comments

My thanks to all sharing books online

Posted on July 4, 2023 by John Mark Ockerbloom

Two score and twelve years ago, Michael Hart sat down at a terminal at the University of Illinois and typed in the text of the Declaration of Independence. He shared the file he created with other users of the computer … Continue reading →

Posted in online books, open access, people, sharing | Comments Off on My thanks to all sharing books online

Public Domain Day countdown on public social media networks

Posted on November 2, 2022 by John Mark Ockerbloom

I’m starting my countdown today to Public Domain Day, when a year’s worth of copyrights in many countries expires on January 1. In the US, we’ll be getting works that were copyrighted in 1927, and whose copyrights were consistently maintained … Continue reading →

Posted in publicdomain, sharing | 3 Comments

Building a new banned books exhibit for a new era

Posted on September 20, 2022 by John Mark Ockerbloom

When I first created Banned Books Online over 25 years ago, I wasn’t primarily worried about book censorship. I was worried about Internet censorship. It was 1994, and the world at large was just getting to know the Internet, which … Continue reading →

Posted in censorship, libraries, online books | Comments Off on Building a new banned books exhibit for a new era

Public Domain Day 2022: Trespassers Will

Posted on January 1, 2022 by John Mark Ockerbloom

The Piglet lived in a very grand house in the middle of a beech-tree, and the beech-tree was in the middle of the forest, and the Piglet lived in the middle of the house. Next to his house was a … Continue reading →

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Coming soon to the public domain in 2022

Posted on December 1, 2021 by John Mark Ockerbloom

One of the blessings of what’s been a rough couple of years is that Public Domain Day is now a routine cause for celebration in the United States. For 20 years up to 2019, very little entered the public domain … Continue reading →

Posted in adventcalendar, copyright, open access, publicdomain | 1 Comment

Public Domain Day 2021: Honoring a lost generation

Posted on January 1, 2021 by John Mark Ockerbloom

It’s Public Domain Day again. In much of Europe, and other countries with “life+70 years” copyright terms, works by authors who died in 1950, such as George Orwell, Karin Michaelis, George Bernard Shaw, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, have joined … Continue reading →

Posted in online books, open access, publicdomain | 3 Comments

Counting down to 1925 in the public domain

Posted on December 15, 2020 by John Mark Ockerbloom

We’re rapidly approaching another Public Domain Day, the day at the start of the year when a year’s worth of creative work joins the public domain. This will be the third year in a row that the US will have … Continue reading →

Posted in copyright, publicdomain | 3 Comments