Groucho, Harpo, and…Popeye? Public Domain Updates for 2025
Well, here we are yet again, in January of a new year and with a whole new slate of works entering the public domain. We’ve discussed the ins and outs of public domain previously—first focusing on Winnie-the-Pooh in 2022 and then taking a look at Mickey Mouse in 2024—and while there is not a similarly towering figure finding its way into that status this year, there is nevertheless a considerable number of noteworthy works that have become more accessible for new interpretations and expressions.
As of January 1, 2025, all works published prior to 1930 are now part of the public domain. We have previously covered in detail what it means for a work to fall into the public domain (check the links above), but quickly restated, the term refers to the body of creative work to which there are no exclusive intellectual property rights, and which anyone is free to repurpose, reproduce, distribute, or disseminate without payment to or permission from the work’s previous owners. The works become “public” in the truest sense, not owned or controlled by a single party but rather part of our collective commons of creative expression.
A Note on Characters
The reach of public domain is not absolute, and fictional characters specifically present a unique challenge to understanding what, exactly, has become fair game for exploitation. When we discussed Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse in previous years, we hinted at this challenge—a gentle reminder that a red shirt on a bear or red shorts on a mouse is still a red flag—but a more detailed explanation is merited in light of the latter character’s developments this year.
The United States Copyright Statute enumerates the types of works entitled to copyright protection, and fictional characters are not mentioned. Courts historically granted copyright protection to characters only as part of the larger works in which they appeared, but gradually, their status as independently protectable works became recognized under common law if they could meet certain requirements.
The Second Circuit was the first to recognize this in Nichols v. Universal Pictures, where the Court established the “well-delineated” test, requiring that to be protectable, a character must (1) possess physical as well as conceptual attributes, (2) be “sufficiently delineated” to be identifiable across multiple appearances, and (3) contain “some unique elements of expression.” In that case, the Court held that the characters at issue—a young couple, one Jewish and one Irish Catholic, who fall in love despite their feuding families—were insufficiently developed to meet this standard, but in later cases characters like Superman were deemed protectable under this standard.
Several years later, the Ninth Circuit added a second test for character copyrightability in Warner Bros. v. Columbia Broadcast Sys. with the “story being told” test, where if the character constitutes the story being told—that is, if they are central and irreplaceable to the story itself—they were entitled to protection. The detective character Sam Spade was deemed a “mere vehicle” for Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon” story and was not entitled to copyright protection in that case, but decades later the alien visitor E.T. was held central to the story being told in the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and was entitled to independent copyright protection.
In instances where a work containing an independently protectable character falls into the public domain, only that specific expression of the character similarly becomes accessible. If that character evolves over years of interpretation, as is the case with Mickey Mouse, authors creating new works utilizing that character must take caution only to exploit character elements expressed in the works within the public domain, lest they inadvertently copy expression that is still very much protected.
Last year that meant limiting exploitation only to the 1928 depictions of Mickey, but now a dozen more Mickey Mouse cartoons have entered the public domain, including both his first speaking role in The Karnival Kid, and his first depiction wearing his now-signature white gloves in The Opry House. While his large eyes, red shorts, and high-pitched voice are still off-limits, the gloves are on!
Other Noteworthy Additions
In the realm of motion pictures, the Marx Brothers made their first cinematic appearance with The Cocoanuts, Buster Keaton made his full-length directorial debut with Spite Marriage, Walt Disney launched the Silly Symphonies line of animated shorts, including the spooky scary The Skeleton Dance, and The Broadway Melody became the first sound film to win the Academy Award for Outstanding Picture, the precursor to the modern Award for Best Picture. Sound in motion pictures was still a relatively new development in 1929, and numerous directors made their first forays into the forever-changed medium, including Harold Lloyd’s Welcome Danger, Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail, and John Ford’s The Black Watch. These are all now in the public domain, but note that other intellectual property or privacy rights, such as the right of publicity, may still be in place for certain works or celebrities appearing in those works.
As for more static works, Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own all became part of the literary canon in 1929 along with many other works, and all of which are now within the public domain. Derivative literary works too eventually fall into the public domain, as is the case with A. W. Wheen’s English-language translation of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, which had originally been published in 1928 in the German newspaper Vossische Zeitung. And while they’ve not seen the same degree of universal success and acclaim Mickey Mouse has enjoyed, the characters Popeye and Tintin made their first comic strip appearances, in Thimble Theatre and The Adventures of Tintin, respectively.
And finally with music, “Fats” Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” and “Honeysuckle Rose” both entered the public domain this year, and “Singin’ in the Rain” was first sung on Broadway in The Hollywood Music Box Revue and then popularized in The Hollywood Revue of 1929. But to close with another gentle reminder, musical works, and sound recordings are entitled to independent protection under the Copyright Statute, so while the underlying song itself is fair game, Gene Kelly’s famous 1952 version is still off-limits without a license.