A new year means a new start, and for some pieces of media, it means entering the public domain. In 2024, one of the most famous additions to the public domain was the first iteration of Mickey Mouse, ...

As of Jan. 1, 2025, several iconic books and characters are now freely available ... List of popular intellectual property entering the public domain in 2025 Works from 1929 and sound recordings ...

With Tintin characters entering the public domain, it is unlikely Marabout would now face such challenges if he made and sold his works in the U.S. This means a person could use these character as ...

But as we saw with the litigation around the character Sherlock Holmes in the mid-2010s, just because a first instance of a work enters the public domain does not mean a character is free game.

Enola Holmes and Watson divert from Doyle's source material, so it's only a matter of time until a Sherlock Holmes favorite ...

This latest in a “Twisted Childhood Universe” of cash-ins preying on copyright expirations ekes genuinely unsettling mileage from a cheesy concept.

a new batch of previously copyrighted works have entered the public domain. People can publish, modify, and adapt these works and their characters without needing to clear rights or pay royalties.

In 1787, the founding fathers agreed that copyrights should only last for a limited amount of time in order to “promote the progress of science and useful arts.” Over two centuries later, that ...

Comic books are no stranger to meta commentary about themselves, but when it comes to commentary on the industry itself, the ...

Some works enter the public domain the moment they are created, such as the AI-generated images below. Others take their ...

The title track from the hit play and movie entered the public domain Wednesday alongside a bevy of other songs, characters and literature first published in the mid-1920s. This year, Virginia ...