Overview
- As of January 1, U.S. works first published in 1930 entered the public domain, alongside certain 1925 sound recordings, according to Duke Law School’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain.
- Notable entries include William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage, and films like All Quiet on the Western Front and Animal Crackers.
- Early cartoon appearances now available include Dizzy Dishes’ dog-like Betty Boop and Disney’s 1930 Pluto debut as Rover, with Fleischer Studios asserting only that precursor Betty Boop is free and courts having previously protected later-added character traits in Sherlock Holmes cases.
- The original four Nancy Drew novels from 1930 are public, but the widely read 1959–1961 rewrites are separate works that will not be free until decades later.
- Key compositions now free to use include Gershwin standards such as I Got Rhythm and Embraceable You, while 1925 recordings like Bessie Smith’s The St. Louis Blues are also available, opening new options for performances, adaptations and preservation.