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posted by requerdanos on Saturday January 02 2021, @04:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the free-the-mouse dept.

Works from 1925 are now open to all! The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School's blog covers the famous works which rise to the public domain on January 1st, 2021.

On January 1, 2021, copyrighted works from 1925 will enter the US public domain,1 where they will be free for all to use and build upon. These works include books such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial (in the original German), silent films featuring Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton, and music ranging from the jazz standard Sweet Georgia Brown to songs by Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, W.C. Handy, and Fats Waller.

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessley into the past."
F. Scott Fitsgerald, The Great Gatsby

This is not just the famous last line from The Great Gatsby. It also encapsulates what the public domain is all about. A culture is a continuing conversation between present and past. On Public Domain Day, we all have a “green light,” in keeping with the Gatsby theme, to use one more year of that rich cultural past, without permission or fee.

1925 was a good year for music. Duke Ellington and Jelly Roll Morton were some of those active then. Though some consider it the best year so far for great books and many classics were published then, among them is the original German version of the all too relevant The Trial by Franz Kafka.

Previously:
(2020) Internet Archive Files Answer and Affirmative Defenses to Publisher Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
(2020) Internet Archive Ends “Emergency Library” Early to Appease Publishers
(2020) Project Gutenberg Public Domain Library Blocked in Italy for Copyright Infringement
(2020) ‘The Wonderful Wizard of Oz’ Turns 120
(2020) University Libraries Offer Online "Lending" of Scanned In-Copyright Books
(2019) The House Votes in Favor of Disastrous Copyright Bill


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  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Monday January 04 2021, @01:01AM (1 child)

    by Pino P (4721) on Monday January 04 2021, @01:01AM (#1094302) Journal

    Pray tell me where I might find a computer that still works that will run Screamer and Road Rash?

    EA's Road Rash was originally made for the Sega Genesis console (called Mega Drive outside North America). My cousin just got a Genesis for Christmas, December 25, 2020.

    How in the flamingly stupid hell can [dead rock recording artists] be convinced to create more works?

    In theory, the estates of those musicians can be convinced to finish and publish those musicians' unpublished works.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Monday January 04 2021, @10:14PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Monday January 04 2021, @10:14PM (#1094701) Homepage Journal

    In theory, the estates of those musicians can be convinced to finish and publish those musicians' unpublished works.

    I'm not getting paid for any of the electrical towers my late dad, a lineman, built. Why should Sony Bono's grandkids get checks for his shit? As someone pointed out previously, copyrights were originally fourteen years TO INDUCE THEM TO CREATE MORE WORKS. Not to induce their grandchildren to do anything, let the damned grandkids do their own thing if they're talented.

    Sorry to raise my voice but people aren't listening.

    --
    mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org