Some Classic Works Are Now Free in the Public Domain
2023-01-07
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1As the calendar turns to 2023, some classic works of literature, music and movies are now available for use at no cost to the American public.
2The classics include The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, the last collection of stories about the famous detective written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
3Some works from famous writers also became free in the new year.
4They include Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse, Ernest Hemingway's Men Without Women, William Faulkner's Mosquitoes and Agatha Christie's The Big Four.
5One of the movies to be free is Wings, a 1927 film directed by William A. Wellman, which was named the outstanding production winner at the very first Oscars award ceremony.
6Other films from 1927 are also now free to the public.
7Among them are The Jazz Singer, the first full-length movie with synchronized dialogue, and Fritz Lang's science-fiction Metropolis.
8Several well-known musical compositions - the music and words, not the sound recordings - are also on the list of creative works available for free.
9They include the Broadway musical Funny Face, jazz music works from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin's classic Puttin' on the Ritz, and I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll and Robert A. King.
10These works are among the thousands of books, movies, and musical compositions entering what is called the public domain in 2023.
11Under United States copyright law, once a work enters the public domain, it can legally be shared, performed, reused, repurposed, or sampled without permission or cost.
12The works from the year 1927 were first supposed to be protected by copyrights for 75 years.
13But in 1998, U.S. law extended copyright protection for another 20 years.
14Jennifer Jenkins is the director of Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain.
15She wrote that "For the vast majority - probably 99 percent - of works from 1927, no copyright holder financially benefited from continued copyright. Yet they remained off limits, for no good reason."
16Jenkins added that the long U.S. copyright period meant many works that would now become available have long since been lost.
17She said they were not profitable to maintain by the legal owners, but they could not be used by others.
18The list of "lost" films kept by the Duke University center includes Victor Fleming's The Way of All Flesh and Tod Browning's London After Midnight.
19The Public Domain Review calls each January 1st a Public Domain Day.
20The publication notes that "there is no one single public domain," adding that countries have different laws to bring creative works into the public domain.
21For example, Britain, most of Europe and South America, permit works by people who died in 1952 to enter the public domain after 70 years.
22In most of Africa and Asia, the terms are 50 years after death.
23I'm Mario Ritter, Jr.
1As the calendar turns to 2023, some classic works of literature, music and movies are now available for use at no cost to the American public. 2The classics include The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, the last collection of stories about the famous detective written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 3Some works from famous writers also became free in the new year. They include Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse, Ernest Hemingway's Men Without Women, William Faulkner's Mosquitoes and Agatha Christie's The Big Four. 4One of the movies to be free is Wings, a 1927 film directed by William A. Wellman, which was named the outstanding production winner at the very first Oscars award ceremony. 5Other films from 1927 are also now free to the public. Among them are The Jazz Singer, the first full-length movie with synchronized dialogue, and Fritz Lang's science-fiction Metropolis. 6Several well-known musical compositions - the music and words, not the sound recordings - are also on the list of creative works available for free. They include the Broadway musical Funny Face, jazz music works from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin's classic Puttin' on the Ritz, and I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll and Robert A. King. 7These works are among the thousands of books, movies, and musical compositions entering what is called the public domain in 2023. 8Under United States copyright law, once a work enters the public domain, it can legally be shared, performed, reused, repurposed, or sampled without permission or cost. 9The works from the year 1927 were first supposed to be protected by copyrights for 75 years. But in 1998, U.S. law extended copyright protection for another 20 years. 10Jennifer Jenkins is the director of Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain. She wrote that "For the vast majority - probably 99 percent - of works from 1927, no copyright holder financially benefited from continued copyright. Yet they remained off limits, for no good reason." 11Jenkins added that the long U.S. copyright period meant many works that would now become available have long since been lost. She said they were not profitable to maintain by the legal owners, but they could not be used by others. The list of "lost" films kept by the Duke University center includes Victor Fleming's The Way of All Flesh and Tod Browning's London After Midnight. 12The Public Domain Review calls each January 1st a Public Domain Day. The publication notes that "there is no one single public domain," adding that countries have different laws to bring creative works into the public domain. 13For example, Britain, most of Europe and South America, permit works by people who died in 1952 to enter the public domain after 70 years. In most of Africa and Asia, the terms are 50 years after death. 14I'm Mario Ritter, Jr. 15Hai Do adapted this Associated Press story for VOA Learning English. 16_________________________________________________________________ 17Words in This Story 18calendar -n. a document showing the days, weeks and months of the year 19classic -adj. a good example of some form, work, product or object 20literature -n. written works that are meaningful for a long time 21detective -n. a police officer or person whose job it is to find information about crimes 22synchronized dialogue -n. having the sound of spoken words match images in a movie 23composition -n. a piece of artistic work or writing, especially musical compositions 24public domain -n. the group of works and some forms of property that are not considered to be owned by anyone and, therefore, can be used without cost by people 25sample -v. to use a small part a recording in another recording 26vast -adj. very great in size and extent 27benefit -v. to receive some good result from something