Celebrate Public Domain Day with Betty Boop and Piet Mondrian

"January 1 might ring in a new year, but it's also a day when copyright protections expire for a bunch of cool old stuff that we can now freely access, republish, reinterpret, and revitalize. So instead of wading through navel-gazing resolution lists flooding social media, let's celebrate Public Domain Day's eclectic selection of treasures, including Betty Boop's debut appearance, a William Faulkner novel, an iconic Piet Mondrian painting, and The Little Engine That Could! 🥂"

"With that established, the protection term has expired for a wellspring of works from 1930 specifically. That means that the debut appearance of animation's original diva, Betty Boop, has entered the public domain! Before you get swept up in the boop-oop-a-doop of it all, note that it's only Betty Boop 1.0, initially animated as an anthropomorphic French poodle introduced in Fleischer Studios's "Dizzy Dishes" (1930) cartoon segment, that is copyright-free."

January 1 marked the entry of many works published in 1930 into the United States public domain, allowing free access, republication, reinterpretation, and revitalization. United States works published between 1930 and 1978 receive a 95-year protection term starting from publication, after which they enter the public domain. The 1996 change extended that 95-year term to works published abroad during the same period, even if still copyrighted in their country of origin. Notable 1930 additions to the public domain include Betty Boop's debut in Fleischer Studios's "Dizzy Dishes," a William Faulkner novel, Piet Mondrian's painting, The Little Engine That Could, and a Dalí–Buñuel collaboration.

Read at Hyperallergic