The universal stars of comics, Tintin and Popeye, along with literary, cinematic, and musical masterpieces by Faulkner, Hemingway, Hitchcock, and Ravel—all created in 1929—have entered the public domain in the United States as of Wednesday, January 2.
Every January 1, thousands of books, films, songs, musical pieces, artworks, and comic characters—95 years old—lose their copyright protection in the U.S. This means they can now be freely copied, shared, reproduced, or adapted, without paying a cent in royalties.
The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University’s law school in North Carolina publishes a year-end list of cultural works entering public domain status. This January 1, the spotlight falls on Popeye, the sailor created in 1929 by American Elzie Crisler Segar, and Tintin, the reporter introduced by Belgian artist Hergé that same year.
“In recent years, we’ve celebrated the public domain entry of fascinating characters like Mickey Mouse (2024) and Winnie the Pooh (2022),” Jennifer Jenkins, the center’s director, notes on their website. “In 2025, copyright expires for additional iterations of Mickey from 1929 and the earliest versions of Popeye and Tintin,” the legal scholar explains.
The year 1929 also saw the release of monumental works in American and European literature, many of which were later adapted for the screen. These include The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, A Room of One’s Own by British author Virginia Woolf, and the first English translation of All Quiet on the Western Front by German author Erich Maria Remarque. These iconic novels also enter the public domain in the U.S. on Wednesday.
In cinema, Duke University highlights Blackmail by Alfred Hitchcock, the first British “talkie,” and The Black Watch by American director John Ford, both released in 1929.
In the world of music, the original version of Singin’ in the Rain by American composers Ignacio Herbert Brown and Arthur Freed—endlessly adapted since—has also lost its copyright protection. Similarly, the legendary Boléro by French composer Maurice Ravel, composed in 1928 but copyrighted the following year, is now in the public domain.
With AFP
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