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Author Archives: John Mark Ockerbloom
Love comes to the public domain
The posters for the silent drama Love read “John Gilbert and Greta Garbo in LOVE”, playing off both the on-screen and off-screen romance of its two stars. The movie, based on Anna Karenina, was filmed with two endings, one where … Continue reading
“…why a Righteous and Most Awfull JUDGEMENT befell her…”
Esther Forbes is best known for her books on colonial New England, winning a Pulitzer prize for her biography of Paul Revere, and the Newbery for her novel Johnny Tremain. Her first book on that era, A Mirror for Witches, … Continue reading
Posted in publicdomain
Tagged PublicDomainDayCountdown
Comments Off on “…why a Righteous and Most Awfull JUDGEMENT befell her…”
Yes! We’ll have new recordings
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
Posted in publicdomain
Tagged PublicDomainDay, PublicDomainDayCountdown
Comments Off on Yes! We’ll have new recordings
If you believe in the public domain, clap your hands
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
Starting to count down to Public Domain Day 2024
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
My thanks to all sharing books online
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
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
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
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
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged copyright, fair use, open access, public domain, Ths Land is Your Land, Winnie the Pooh
2 Comments
Coming soon to the public domain in 2022
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
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