Public Domain Day

Stories pegged to January 1, when a new year of U.S. copyrights ends.

Every Jan 1, another year of U.S. copyrights ends. On Jan 1, 2027, that means works published in 1931 and sound recordings from 1926, including the films Frankenstein, Dracula and City Lights.

These stories cover the works going free, the edge cases (a 1931 film that is already free, and one that may have to wait until 2028), and why the yearly date stopped from 1999 to 2018. For the full class, see our Public Domain 2027 list. None of this is legal advice.

16 stories

Public Domain Day: Frankenstein was published Jan 1, 1818
Scott Credited the Wrong Shelley
The first edition had no author’s name. Reviewers guessed, and the most famous of them guessed wrong.
Public Domain Day: Frankenstein (1931) enters Jan 1, 2027
Frankenstein’s Casting and Cuts
The 1931 Frankenstein almost had a different director and a different monster, and the version most people saw for 50 years was missing its most shocking minute.
Public Domain Day: the English Dracula (1931) enters Jan 1, 2027
The Night-Shift Drácula
While Bela Lugosi slept, a second Dracula moved into his castle. Universal shot a Spanish-language version on the same sets, at night, and for 60 years almost nobody in the US could see it.
Public Domain Day: Dracula (1931) enters Jan 1, 2027
Dracula Dodges Friday the 13th
Dracula was due to open on Broadway on Friday the 13th in February 1931, until Universal moved it up a day because its director, Tod Browning, "goes in for superstition." The Valentine's tagline everyone repeats, "the strangest love story," is harder to pin down, since the only 1931 trade-paper ad we found with those words is for a different Universal picture.
Public Domain Day: City Lights (1931) enters Jan 1, 2027
Chaplin’s Silent Bet
Three years after the talkies arrived, Charlie Chaplin spent two years and $1.6 million on a film with almost no dialogue. Albert Einstein came to the premiere.
Public Domain Day: The Moose Hunt (1931) enters Jan 1, 2027
How Pluto Got His Name
Mickey's dog was called Rover before he was Pluto. He got his new name in 1931, a year after an 11-year-old in Oxford named a new planet. Disney's own archivists can't say for sure the two are connected.
Public Domain Day: the 1931 Dick Tracy strips enter Jan 1, 2027
Before He Was Dick Tracy
Chester Gould mailed sixty comic-strip ideas to the Chicago Tribune's Joseph Patterson over a decade and sold none. The sixty-first was "Plainclothes Tracy." Patterson said the title was too long: cops are called "dicks," so call him Dick Tracy.
Public Domain Day: the 1931 Weird Tales story enters Jan 1, 2027
Lovecraft’s Planet Yuggoth
Less than three weeks after astronomers announced a ninth planet in March 1930, H. P. Lovecraft wrote to a friend: "I think I shall suggest its being named Yuggoth!" He didn't get his way, so he put it in a story instead. The planet was Pluto and the story was "The Whisperer in Darkness," published in August 1931. It enters the US public domain Jan 1, 2027.
Public Domain Day: the 1931 Shadow magazines enter Jan 1, 2027
The Shadow Began as a Voice
In 1930 "The Shadow" was just a sinister announcer's voice on a CBS radio show. Listeners walked into newsstands asking for "that Shadow magazine," so Street & Smith hurried one out, and a magician who ghostwrote for Houdini invented the character to fill it. The 1931 Shadow enters the US public domain on Jan 1, 2027.
Public Domain Day: Alice's UK copyright ran out in 1907
Alice’s Recalled First Edition
The first printing of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was pulled because the illustrator hated how his pictures came out. Forty-two years later the UK copyright ran out, and by that Christmas at least seven new illustrated versions were in the shops.
Public Domain Day: 2027 or 2028? The copyright date says Jan 5, 1932
Jekyll and Hyde: 1931 or 1932?
Fredric March's Oscar-winning Jekyll opened on New Year's Eve 1931, which puts it on every "class of 1931" list. Its copyright record says 1932, and the renewal was filed by the parent company of the studio that later bought the film and shelved it.
Public Domain Day: 1926 recordings enter Jan 1, 2027
The Jazz Record Locked Until 2067
Until 2018, federal law said no American sound recording made before 1972 could enter the public domain until 2067. Then Congress changed the rule, and on Jan 1, 2027, Jelly Roll Morton's 1926 "Black Bottom Stomp," a Library of Congress landmark, goes free 40 years early.
Public Domain Day: the 1926 record enters Jan 1, 2027
Armstrong’s Dropped Lyric Sheet
On Feb 26, 1926, Louis Armstrong dropped his lyric sheet in the middle of a take and kept singing nonsense syllables. That is how the story goes, and the people in the room mostly backed it up. The record that came out of that take goes into the US public domain on Jan 1, 2027.
Public Domain Day: a 1931 film that went free a year early
The 1931 Film Already Free
On January 1, 2027, the 1931 movies enter the US public domain. One of the most famous 1931 gangster films is not on that list, because its copyright is dated December 29, 1930. By the Copyright Office's own records, it has been free since January 1, 2026.
Public Domain Day: why it vanished from 1999 to 2018
The Long Copyright Freeze
On Sept 19, 1962, Congress passed a two-sentence resolution that kept old copyrights from expiring "until December 31, 1965." It then renewed that stopgap eight more times, once on New Year's Eve 1974. In 1998 it added 20 years on top. The upshot: Jan 1, 2027 is only the ninth US Public Domain Day with a new crop of published works since 1998.
Public Domain Day: how film copyright began, Jan 9, 1894
The Sneeze That Got a Copyright
The oldest surviving motion picture registered for copyright in the US is five seconds of a man sneezing. It reached the Library of Congress as a single photograph on a card, because the law had no category for films.

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