Copyright law today puts anything that is over 95 years old into public domain. For ease of handling, all of 1929 goes into the public domain as of January 1 in the 95th year. That means on January 1, 2025 all works from 1929 are in the public domain. Sound recordings are under a separate law and go into the public domain after 100 years.
And what a bounty there will be.
On January 1, 2025, thousands of copyrighted works from 1929 will enter the US public domain, along with sound recordings from 1924. They will be free for all to copy, share, and build upon. This year’s literary highlights include The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, and A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf. In film, Mickey Mouse speaks his first words, the Marx Brothers star in their first feature film, and legendary directors from Alfred Hitchcock to John Ford made their first sound films. From comic strips, the original Popeye and Tintin characters will enter the public domain. Among the newly public domain compositions are Gershwin’s An American in Paris, Ravel’s Bolero, Fats Waller’s Ain’t Misbehavin’, and the musical number Singin’ in the Rain. Below is just a handful of the works that will be in the US public domain in 2025. To find more material from 1929, you can visit the Catalogue of Copyright Entries.
Probably because I was born only 21 years later, I grew up with Hemingway and Mickey Mouse and Ellery Queen. They were still putting out new stuff in my lifetime. So they don’t seem to be musty works from a distant past, but a world still fresh, familiar, and modern.
Copyright law has numbers of quirks, so be careful if you want to use 1929 works. Popeye’s representation as he was in 1929 is now in the public domain, as are other characters from the strip, but not anything introduced 1930 and after.
Now we get to speculate what works will be celebrated in 2120.
Ugh, I love those old Popeye cartoons! I remember distinctly of the one where the termites eat his house and he makes a house of metal by the end of it.
But it means that all the silent science fiction is now public. I list every surviving silent science fiction film available on YouTube on my website, and the latest is from 1929.
That means Fritz Lang’s fantantic *Frau im Mond (Woman in the Moon*) - the film that invented the rocket ship countdown - is public, as are Mysterious Island, and High Treason.
Credits, notes, and links attached to each movie. They’re slow loading, so I broke them down into four chronological pages. Go to the introductory page on my website for info and links to the pages. Some of them come and go; I think I have all but one running now.
I hadn’t heart about this one, but I am a fan of the genre, at least in theory. I enjoyed the Winnie the Pooh slasher movies. The Mickey Mouse one, based on Steamboat Willie, was terrible. IMHO the concept was interesting, they just did it poorly. I’ll be first in line to watch Popeye as a slasher, should that be a real trailer and not just some AI generated crap that’s all over the web these days.
I’d like to see a comedy, doesn’t even have to be live action. Unfortunately I feel that the movie makers would have to have an actual interest in Popeye rather than a cash grab. Maybe someday.
Too bad the last effort was axed, it looked really good.
If your interested, a recent comic book Eye Lie Popeye is quite good.
I was surprised that nobody had done this before. I own several histories/encyclopedia of science fiction movies, so the work was more drudgery than invention. I just went through the books looking for the titles mentioned. If I found them I looked through the possibilities for what seemed to have the best quality and most content. I linked each to YouTube and used the books and other sources to compile as complete a list of credits as possible. I also looked for any content that the films adapted, since I always try to give credit to authors. Then, like a newly planted and glorious garden, it needed constant weeding, pruning dead links, finding replacements, and adjusting any information on them or others.
The pages have been up for many years. I probably should go through the books again and see if any unfindable titles have miraculously appeared. Georges Méliès is a good candidate for that. But my current to do list already mocks me daily, so don’t hold your breath. Nevertheless, thanks for the thanks.
Songs written in 1929 will become public domain, but recordings from that year will not. It wasn’t until 1972 that recordings could be copyrighted. In the U.S., recordings made before then were protected by individual state anti-piracy laws that didn’t specify any term of protection, so in effect they’re protected forever.
Some songs from 1929:
Ain’t Misbehavin’
Am I Blue?
Black and Blue
Button Up Your Overcoat
Carolina Moon
Happy Days Are Here Again
Honeysuckle Rose
How Long, How Long Blues
Singin’ in the Rain
Sunny Side Up
1929 wasn’t a particularly good year for movies. They were still making the transition from silents to talkies, which resulted in a lot of mediocre films for a few years. The Oscar for best picture that year went to The Broadway Melody, which hasn’t help up well. Other notable movies from that year include The Cocoanuts, Spite Marriage,The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Man with a Movie Camera, and The Wild Party.
Does it mean that they can remake “Metropolis”? Or are remakes under a less strict rule than what we are discussing here? We’ve seens 100s of remakes over the years, but that has perhaps been done by the rights holders?
Wonder what a remake of “Metropolis” would be like, and if its worth it, seeing as good the original already is… That was Fritz Lang too wasnt it?
It’s hard to think of any movie more of its time than Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. But that’s also true of Casablanca and look at how many remakes that’s had.
Giorgio Moroder composed a new soundtrack for Metropolis, I think in the eighties. Have you seen this version? I haven’t, but I heard good things about it and I like and respect Moroder for the work he’s done otherwise.
I’ve seen various versions. But I pay no attention to soundtracks whatsoever, new, old, or any other kind. I know other people do, but that’s not how my brain works.
