New Works to Enter the Public Domain in 2025

A roundup of some of the notable works that entered the Public Domain this year.

Written by Matthew Masino

Each year on January 1, a collection of copyrighted work loses its protected status and enters the public domain. This is marked with the celebration of Public Domain Day. We celebrated the day last year when Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse entered the public domain.

According to the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, “The goal of copyright is to promote creativity, and the public domain plays a central role in doing so. Copyright law gives authors important rights that encourage creativity and distribution. But it also ensures that those rights last for a ‘limited time,’ so that when they expire, works can go into the public domain, where future authors can legally build upon their inspirations…Anyone can use these works as raw material for their own creations, without fear of a lawsuit. What kinds of things will people do with public domain works?”

Now that it is 2025, many works are entering the public domain for the first time. In the United States, books, films, and other media published in 1929 enter the public domain in 2025, along with sound recordings from 1924. Many are obscure, but we’ve highlighted some of the big names below, including a certain spinach-loving, strong-armed sailor. We hope their new legal status inspires you to go out and create something of your own!

Here are just a few selections of works to enter the public domain in 2025:

Characters

In 2025, several characters will enter the public domain, including Horace Horsecollar, Tintin (Les Aventures de Tintin), and the original Popeye the Sailor Man. His first appearance in “Gobs of Work” from the Thimble Theatre comic strip came in January 1929.

Popeye the Sailor Man's first appearance in "Gobs of Work" from the Thimble Theatre comic strip

Books

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner first edition — First-edition cover of “The Sound and the Fury” (1929) by William Faulkner

The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
Laughing Boy: A Navajo Love Story by Oliver La Farge
A Cup of Gold by John Steinbeck
The Magic Island by William Seabrook
All Quiet on the Western Front (first English translation) by Erich Maria Remarque, translated by Arthur Wesley Wheen
Tarzan and the Lost Empire by Edgar Rice Burroughs
God’s Man by Lynd Ward
Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz by Ruth Plumly Thompson
Is Sex Necessary? Or, Why You Feel the Way You Do by E.B. White and James Thurber
The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee)

Films

While Mickey Mouse joined the public domain in 2024, his voice is joining him this year with The Karnival Kid.

The Cocoanuts (the first Marx Brothers’ film)
The Gallopin’ Gaucho
The Broadway Melody
Say It With Songs
Spite Marriage
Show Boat
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchi
The Skeleton Dance

Musical Compositions

An American in Paris in Paris by George Gershwin
“Ain’t Misbehavin'” by Andy Razaf, Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller, and Harry Brooks
“Can’t We Be Friends” by Paul James and Kay Swift
“Honeysuckle Rose” by Andy Razaf and Thomas ‘Fats’ Waller
“Liza (All the Clouds’ll Roll Away)” by Ira Gershwin, Gus Kahn, and George Gershwin
“Singin’ in the Rain” by Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown
“Bolero” by Maurice Ravel
“Tiptoe Through the Tulips” by Alfred Dubin and Joseph Burke
“Without a Song” by Vincent Youmans, Billy Rose, and Edward Eliscu
“Honey” by Seymour Simons, Haven Gillespie, and Richard A. Whiting

Fats Waller performs “Ain’t Misbehavin'” with Lena Horne in the 1943 film Stormy Weather, which will enter the Public Domain in 2038.

International Works

While our goal here at the American Writers Museum is to celebrate the writing of American authors, we also want to highlight some international works entering the public domain here in the United States.

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Rope by Patric Hamilton
Toad of Toad Hall by A.A. Milne
The Roman Hat Mystery by Margery Allingham
Encyclopædia Britannica (14th edition)
Blackmail, directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Matthew Masino is the Community Engagement Manager for the AWM. He is also a content creator, writer, and theatre director based in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated with a B.F.A. in Theatre Directing from Columbia College Chicago in 2019. As a theatre artist, Matthew has worked with the International Voices Project, the Chicago Fringe Festival, and BYOT Productions. You can learn more by visiting his website www.matthewmasino.com.

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