"The first appearances of the classic cartoon and comic characters are among the pieces of intellectual property whose 95-year U.S. copyright maximum has been reached, putting them in the public domain on Jan. 1. That means creators can use and repurpose them without permission or payment. The 2026 batch of newly public artistic creations doesn't quite have the sparkle of the recent first entries into the public domain of Mickey or Winnie. But ever since 2019 - the end of a 20-year IP drought brought on by congressional copyright extensions - every annual crop has been a bounty for advocates of more work belonging to the public."
""It's a big year," said Jennifer Jenkins, law professor and director of Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, for whom New Year's Day is celebrated as Public Domain Day. "It's just the sheer familiarity of all this culture." Jenkins said that, collectively, this year's work shows "the fragility that was between the two wars and the depths of the Great Depression.""
"When she first appears in the 1930 short "Dizzy Dishes," one of four of her cartoons entering the public domain, she's already totally recognizable as the Jazz Age flapper later memorialized in countless tattoos, T-shirts and bumper stickers. She has her baby face, short hair with groomed curls, flashy eyelashes and miniature mouth. But she's also got dangling poodle ears and a tiny black nose. Those would soon morph into dangling earrings and a tiny white nose."
On Jan. 1, multiple artistic works that reached the 95-year U.S. copyright term enter the public domain, allowing creators to use and repurpose them without permission or payment. The 2026 cohort includes early appearances of well-known cartoon and comic characters, though fewer headline-making icons than earlier releases. Annual releases resumed after a 20-year pause caused by congressional copyright extensions that ended in 2019. The collection reflects cultural conditions between the world wars and the Great Depression. Research from Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain identifies specific entries, including Betty Boop's 1930 Dizzy Dishes.
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