A brand new 12 months is starting, and meaning a brand new crop of creative works are entering the public domain. Today, much of the material copyrighted in 1929, together with sound recordings from 1924, becomes fair game that can be freely adapted, reused, copied and shared. Public Domain Center at Duke Law School collected a few of the more notable properties that entered the public domain in early 2025
It’s an enormous 12 months for film, with several cutting-edge directors debuting their first sound projects, including Alfred Hitchcock and Cecil B. DeMille. 1929 was also the 12 months when Walt Disney directed Ub Iwerks’ iconic short film and when Mickey Mouse starred in his first talkie. Fearless Tintin and the original Popeye characters also became public domain.
The compositions of several great songs have entered the public domain today. There are memorable performance songs like jazz standards and classic hits like masterpieces. The recording side includes songs by the beautiful George Gershwin and the legendary singer Marian Anderson.
Finally, several authors had titles in the Duke Law summary. Noir fans will likely be blissful to see Dashiell Hammett here as well. Other notable literary works currently in the public domain include Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemmingway, Agatha Christie, and William Faulkner. And for lovers of poems, the original German version by Rainer Maria Rilke can also be on the list.
