COMMONSCUT

Public Domain Day · January 1, 2027

Public Domain 2027: What Enters the U.S. Public Domain

Works from 1931, and sound recordings from 1926. A sourced list we keep updating.

A living list. Last updated Sunday, November 1, 2026. We add works as we check them and say how we checked. Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain usually publishes its own list in late December; when it does, we’ll check ours against it.

Not legal advice. U.S. only. Status can depend on publication and renewal facts, and other countries have different rules.

The rule in one line. U.S. works published in 1931 with a renewed copyright get 95 years, and every term runs to the end of the calendar year, so they enter the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2027. If a 1931 copyright was never renewed, the work is already free. (Cornell public domain chart; 17 U.S.C. §304; §305)

Only the 1931 version. Later sequels, remakes, new scores, restorations with new material and translations have their own copyrights, and trademarks don’t expire with copyright. (17 U.S.C. §103(b))

Where we checked a renewal record ourselves, the entry says Renewal checked. Everything else comes from the published lists linked under each entry.

Films from 1931

Characters

  • Pluto, as he appears in Disney’s The Moose Hunt (1931), his first appearance under that name Only the 1931 version. Disney’s trademarks and later designs stay protected. Sources: Wikipedia, 2027 in public domain; Public Domain Countdown; renewed November 20, 1958 (R225433), per our story Pluto gets his name
  • The Shadow, as he appears in the five 1931 issues of The Shadow magazine Only those issues, as printed in 1931. A THE SHADOW trademark registration is live, and Condé Nast controls licensing for the character through Street & Smith, so the name on products is a separate question. Source, with the renewal and trademark records: The Shadow was a radio voice before he was a character
  • Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster, as they appear in the 1931 films See the two films above. Later films’ versions, makeup changes and Universal’s marks are not included. Sources: the renewal records above; Commons Cut Issue No. 1

Books and plays

Songs and recordings

Unpublished works

What we left off, for now

Some 1931 works show up on other lists but aren’t here yet, because a fact we’d need is still unconfirmed: whether a painting was “published” in 1931 (Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory), whether a copyright was renewed at all (some 1931 comic strips), or a live trademark that makes the name risky to use. We’ll add them when we can source them.

Common questions

The strange stories behind these works: Commons Cut Stories. What you can use from Dracula and Frankenstein: Issue No. 1.

Sources

  1. Peter B. Hirtle, “Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States,” Cornell University Library (last updated Jan 1, 2026)
  2. 17 U.S.C. §304 and §305 (terms run to the end of the calendar year)
  3. U.S. Copyright Office, “Pre-1972 Sound Recordings”
  4. Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain (its 2027 list was not yet published on Nov 1, 2026)
  5. Wikipedia, “2027 in public domain”
  6. Public Domain Countdown, “What enters the public domain in 2027?”
  7. Catalog of Copyright Entries, Third Series, renewals: Motion Pictures 1958, Motion Pictures 1959, Dramas 1958 (Internet Archive)

Commons Cut · free every week

Get stories like this in your inbox, free.

The strange stories behind familiar classics, in a free weekly newsletter, on the website, and in short videos. Free every Tuesday. Issue No. 2 is out now: Was trick-or-treating born on Thanksgiving?

Free when you subscribe: the Public Domain Day 2027 cheat sheet (PDF).

New issue every week. Unsubscribe anytime.

Want the full, true story behind each work? See The Director’s Cut, our paid edition.

from Half-In Productions