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, ...

However, since 2019, some of those existing copyrights have been expiring, meaning that those characters entered the public domain, as their owners lost exclusive rights to their likeness.

These are just a small handful of the most important items on the list. Click here to view photo gallery Source: These Classic Characters Are Now in the Public Domain ...

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 ...

According to the Duke University School of Law's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, that list includes a number of iconic characters. The very first appearance of Popeye the Sailor ...

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

Superman. Captain America. The Fantastic Four. All of these characters, and many, many more, are getting new movies this year ...

Since Hergé died in 1983, the EU won’t see Tintin in the public domain until 2054, according to Duke University. There will be an even wider range of classic characters to use next year ...

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.

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 ...