Back in 2019,
a law that extended copyright protections for another 20 years in the US finally hit its expiration date, and a treasure trove of works hit the public domain, meaning that they could be used, adapted, mixed, and re-mixed without further permission. Every year since, January 1 has been known in the copyright world as “Public Domain Day” when new works hit the public domain bricks.
This also makes understanding US Copyright Law limits a wee bit easier to understand. Generally, a creator has federal
copyright protection automatically as soon as their work is set in a fixed, tangible medium. This protection lasts for the life of the creator (author) plus 70 years. For corporate entities or pseudonymous works, this protection lasts from the time the work is created in that fixed format for another 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever comes first.
That said, just because something is in the public domain does not mean that you can use it freely everywhere in the world or for anything you want. Why? Well, different countries have different copyright durations, so even if a work is fair game here in the US, it might still have restrictions in Canada, for example,
where some works have had their copyright terms extended in a similar way to what the US did back in at the beginning of the 2000s.
But some of this public domain-ness is sort of staged out. Mickey Mouse is in the public domain but ONLY in his earliest form as Steamboat Willie. The same is true for Winnie the Pooh and Sherlock Holmes.
Newcomers in 2025 to this “sort of” public domain include Popeye and Tintin, both of which are released from copyright protections in the US, but public domain is ONLY for their earliest iterations, and ONLY here in the US.
To further complicate the issue, some of these creations are also vigorously guarded under trademark law. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the Disney corporation will be defending the use of “mouse ears” and others of its beloved characters through trademark for years and years to come. And where copyright can expire, trademark is renewable.
Creator beware indeed.
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