Happy New Year!
With the start of a new year, we have new works entering the public domain. January 1, 2024 marks the date that items published in the year 1928 enter the public domain in the United States. Items in the public domain are free from copyright protections and can be legally shared without needing to ask permission or pay fees. January 1st of any given year is the date that items typically enter into the public domain. This happens 70 years after the death of the author, 95 years from the date of publication, or 120 years from the date of creation – typically whichever comes first, but there are lots of exceptions (see this Cornell chart for more details). Also, just because something is in the public domain in the United States doesn’t mean it’s not protected within other countries.
In celebration of the release of copyrighted works into the public domain, I wanted to share a not-at-all-comprehensive list of items that entered the public domain on January 1st. If you are a faculty member, take a look at the list and see if any of this content would be useful in the courses you teach. Public domain means access to content should be free or relatively cheap (great news for your students), and fair game for remixing and reusing (great news for you). I’ve provided links to UT owned copies where possible to allow users to access materials. Please keep in mind that those copies I’ve linked to may be later editions, translations, recordings, or otherwise modified in ways that still may be protected by copyright.
Disclaimer: I tried to find a couple sources for each item listed, but please use this list with care and do your own research on publication dates.
Film
Alraune: Dir. Henrik Galeen (German)
Ang Lumang Simbahan: Dir. Jose Nepomuceno (Philippines)
L’Argent: Dir. Marcel L’Herbier (French)
Beggars of Life: Dir. William A. Wellman
The Cameraman: Dir. Edward Sedgwick and Buster Keaton
The Cardboard Lover: Dir. Robert Z. Leonard
Champagne: Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Un chapeau de paille d’Italie (The Italian Straw Hat): Dir. René Clair (French)
The Circus: Dir. Charlie Chaplin
The Constant Nymph: Dir. Adrian Brunel
La Coquille et le clergyman (The Seashell and the Clergyman): Dir. Germaine Dulac (French)
The Cossacks: Dir. George Hill and Clarence Brown
十字路 (Crossroads): Dir. Teinosuke Kinugasa (Japanese)
The Crowd: Dir. King Vidor
The Docks of New York: Dir. Josef von Sternberg
L’Étoile de mer (The Starfish): Dir. Man Ray (French)
The Farmer’s Wife: Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
Four Sons: Dir. John Ford
The Godless Girl: Dir. Cecil B. DeMille
Heimkehr (Homecoming): Dir. Joe May (German)
Дом на Трубной (The House on Trubnaya): Dir. Boris Barnet (Russian)
In Old Arizona: Dir. Irving Cummings and Raoul Walsh (Academy Award for Best Actor, Warner Baxter)
The Last Command: Dir. Josef von Sternberg (Academy Award for Best Actor, Emil Jannings)
Laugh, Clown, Laugh: Dir. Herbert Brenon
Lights of New York: Dir. Bryan Foy (first all-talking full-length film)
Lonesome: Dir. Paul Fejös
The Man Who Laughs: Dir. Paul Leni (inspiration for the Joker character)
The Mysterious Lady: Dir. Fred Niblo
Our Dancing Daughters: Dir. Harry Beaumont
La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc: Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer (French)
The Power of the Press: Dir. Frank Capra
The Racket: Dir. Lewis Milestone
Sadie Thompson: Dir. Raoul Walsh
Show People: Dir. King Vidor
Speedy: Dir. Ted Wilde
Spione (Spies): Dir. Fritz Lang (German)
Steamboat Willie: Dir. Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks (first widely distributed appearance of Mickey Mouse)
Street Angel: Dir. Frank Borzage (Academy Award for Best Actress, Janet Gaynor)
Tempest: Dir. Sam Taylor (Academy Award for Best Art Direction)
The Wedding March: Dir. Erich von Stroheim
West of Zanzibar: Dir. Tod Browning
White Shadows in the South Seas: Dir. W.S. Van Dyke (Academy Award for Best Cinematography)
The Wind: Dir. Victor Sjöström
A Woman of Affairs: Dir. Clarence Brown
Literature
Barrie, J.M.: Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up (play)
Benavente, Jacinto: Pepa Doncel (Spanish play)
Benét, Stephen Vincent: John Brown’s Body (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry)
Brecht, Bertolt: Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) (German play)
Breton, André: Nadja (original French edition)
Butts, Mary: Armed with Madness
Charteris, Leslie: Meet the Tiger (first of the Simon Templar “The Saint” novels)
Christie, Agatha: The Mystery of the Blue Train
Colette: La Naissance du jour (Break of Day) (original French edition)
Dane, Clemence and Simpson, Helen: Enter Sir John
Day, Frank Parker: Rockbound
Dixon, Franklin: Hunting for Hidden Gold (A Hardy Boys mystery)
Du Bois, W.E.B.: Dark Princess
Forbes, Esther: A Mirror for Witches
Ford, Ford Madox: Last Post
Frost, Robert: West-Running Brook
Gág, Wanda: Millions of Cats (oldest American picture book still in print)
Gailit, August: Toomas Nipernaadi (original Estonian edition)
García Lorca, Federico: Romancero gitano (original Spanish edition)
Güntekin, Reşat Nuri: Yeşil Gece (The Green Night) (original Turkish edition)
Hall, Radclyffe: The Well of Loneliness
Heyer, Georgette: The Masqueraders
Huxley, Aldous: Point Counter Point
Ilf, Ilya and Petrov, Yevgeny: Двенадцать стульев (The Twelve Chairs) (original Russian edition)
Javakhishvili, Mikheil: გივი შადური (Givi Shaduri) (original Georgian edition)
Kashmiri, Agha Hashar: Sita Banbas (Urdu play)
Kelly, Eric P.: The Trumpeter of Krakow (winner of the Newberry Medal)
Kessel, Joseph: Belle de Jour (original French edition)
Lagerlöf, Selma: Anna Svärd (original Swedish edition)
Larsen, Nella: Quicksand
Lloyd, Harold: An American Comedy (autobiography)
Maugham, W. Somerset: The Sacred Flame (play)
McKay, Claude: Home to Harlem
Mead, Margaret: Coming of Age in Samoa
Milne, A.A.: The House at Pooh Corner (introduction of the character, Tigger)
Muis, Abdul: Salah Asuhan (original Indonesian edition)
Nabokov, Vladimir: Король, дама, валет (King, Queen, Knave) (original Russian edition)
O’Neill, Eugene: Strange Interlude (play – winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama)
Prieto, Jenaro: El Socio (The Partner) (original Spanish edition)
Salten, Felix: Bambi, A Life in the Woods (the 1928 English translation by Whittaker Chambers)
Sassoon, Siegfried: Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man (winner of the Hawthornden Prize and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize)
Sayers, Dorothy L.:
- Lord Peter Views the Body (collection of short stories)
- The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
Street, Cecil: The Murders in Praed Street
Van Dine, S.S.: The Greene Murder Case
von Harbou, Thea: Die Frau im Mond (The Rocket to the Moon) (original German edition)
Walpole, Hugh: Wintersmoon
Waugh, Evelyn: Decline and Fall
Wells, H.G.:
Woolf, Virginia: Orlando: A Biography
Wright, S. Fowler: Deluge
Yeats, W.B.: The Tower
Music
Note – this list refers only to the musical compositions (lyrics and music) and not recordings of these songs.
“An American in Paris” by George Gershwin
“Back in Your Own Backyard” by Dave Dreyer, Al Jolson, and Billy Rose
“Basin Street Blues” by Spencer Williams
“Beau Koo Jack” by Louis Armstrong, Walter Melrose, and Alex Hill
“Big Rock Candy Mountain” by Harry McClintock
“Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas)” by Jimmie Rodgers
“Boléro” by Maurice Ravel
“Button up your Overcoat” lyrics by B.G. DeSylva and Lew Brown with music by Ray Henderson
“Coquette” lyrics by Gus Kahn with music by Carmen Lombardo and John Green
“Crazy Rhythm” lyrics by Irving Caesar with music by Joseph Meyer and Roger Wolfe Kahn
“Die ägyptische Helena (The Egyptian Helen), Op. 75” by Richard Strauss, libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
“Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (The Ballad of Mack the Knife)” by Bertolt Brecht
“Die Tageszeiten (Times of the Day)” lyrics by Joseph Eichendorff and music by Richard Strauss
“Empty Bed Blues” by J.C. Johnson
“A Garden in the Rain” lyrics by James Dyrenforth with music by Carroll Gibbons
“Get Out and Get Under the Moon” lyrics by Charles Tobias and William Jerome with music by Larry Shay
“Glad Rag Doll” by Dan Dougherty and Milton Ager
“Hooray for Captain Spaulding” lyrics by Bert Kalmar with music by Harry Ruby
“How About Me?” by Irving Berlin
“I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby” lyrics by Dorothy Fields with music by Jimmy McHugh
“I Wanna Be Loved by You” lyrics by Bert Kalmar with music by Harry Ruby and Herbert Stothart
“I’d Rather be Blue Over You” lyrics by Billy Rose with music by Fred Fisher
“If I Had You” by Ted Shapiro, Jimmy Campbell, and Reg Connelly
“I’ll Get By (As Long as I Have You)” lyrics by Roy Turk with music by Fred E. Ahlert
“It’s Tight Like That” by Georgia Tom and Hudson “Tampa Red” Whittaker
“Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” by Cole Porter
“Love Me or Leave Me” lyrics by Gus Kahn with music by Walter Donaldson
“Lover, Come Back to Me” lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein with music by Sigmund Romberg
“Makin’ Whoopee” lyrics by Gus Kahn with music by Walter Donaldson
“Oh, So Nice!” lyrics by Ira Gershwin with music by George Gershwin
“Ramona” lyrics by L. Wolfe Gilbert with music by Mabel Wayne
“Room 1411” by Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman
“Softly, As in a Morning Sunrise” lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein with music by Sigmund Romberg
“Sonny Boy” by Ray Henderson, Buddy DeSylva, and Lew Brown
“Sweet Lorraine” lyrics by Mitchell Parish with music by Cliff Burwell
“Sweet Sue” lyrics by Will J. Harris with music by Victor Young
“Таити трот (Tahiti Trot), Op. 16” by Dmitri Shostakovich
“That’s My Weakness Now” by Bud Green and Sam H. Stept
“There’s a Rainbow ‘Round My Shoulder” by Al Jolson, Billy Rose and Dave Dreyer
“West End Blues” by Joseph Oliver and Clarence Williams
“When You’re Smiling” by Mark Fisher, Joe Goodwin, and Larry Shay
“You Took Advantage of Me” lyrics by Lorenz Hart with music by Richard Rodgers
“You’re the Cream in My Coffee” lyrics by B.G. DeSylva and Lew Brown with music by Ray Henderson
January 1, 2024 also marks the date that sound recordings from the year 1923 enter the public domain. Here is just a handful of recordings from 1923. You can listen to many more recordings from 1923 at the Library of Congress National Jukebox.
- “Bambalina” performed by The Ray Miller Orchestra
- “Barney Google” performed by Ernest Hare and Billy Jones
- “Down Hearted Blues” performed by Bessie Smith and Clarence Williams
- “Dreamy Melody” performed by Shannon Four
- “No, No Nora” performed by Eddie Cantor
- “St Louis Blues” performed by Al Bernard and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band
- “Swingin’ Down the Lane” performed by Shannon Four
- “Tin Roof Blues” performed by the Original Memphis Five
- “Waitin’ For the Evenin’ Mail” performed by Tennessee Ten
- “Who’s Sorry Now?” performed by Lewis James
- “Wolverine Blues” performed by the Benson Orchestra of Chicago
- “Yes! We Have No Bananas” performed by Furman and Nash
Check out the Center for the Study of the Public Domain for even more works entering the public domain this month, including a fascinating deep dive into copyright and trademark related to Mickey Mouse.
