Category Archives: copyright

When “The Boy Who Was” will be free

Posted on November 6, 2023 by John Mark Ockerbloom

In Grace Taber Hallock’s fantasy The Boy Who Was, Nino, a boy given eternal youth by the Sirens, relates what he’s seen and done in his Italian coastal town over thousands of years, from the time of Odysseus to 1927. … Continue reading →

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Love comes to the public domain

Posted on November 5, 2023 by John Mark Ockerbloom

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 →

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“…why a Righteous and Most Awfull JUDGEMENT befell her…”

Posted on November 4, 2023 by John Mark Ockerbloom

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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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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 →

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