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The cultural works becoming public domain in 2026

3446 Mins Read

A new year means a new parade of classic characters and works entering the public domain.

Under U.S. law, the copyright on thousands of creations from 1930 — including films, books, musical compositions and more — will expire at the stroke of midnight on Jan. 1, 2026, meaning they will be free to use, share and adapt after nearly a century.

“I think this is my favorite crop of works yet, which is saying a lot,” says Jennifer Jenkins, the director of Duke University Law School’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, who has compiled an annual list of public domain entrants for over a decade.

This year’s treasure trove features famous faces like the original Betty Boop — whose iconic hoop earrings originally took the form of floppy dog ears — and the initial version of Disney’s Pluto, who first went by the name Rover.

“That’s not only exciting in itself, but it’s really an opportunity to look back at the history of these two incredible animation studios, Fleischer and Disney, and how their styles are imprinted in the DNA of today’s cartoons,” Jenkins says. “That’s just a fun rabbit hole.”

Literary highlights include William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, the full version of Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, Watty Piper’s The Little Engine that Could, the first four books of the Nancy Drew detective series and The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie’s first Miss Marple mystery.

The movie selection spans war stories, musicals, thrillers, Westerns, comedies and more, coming from directors including Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hughes and Salvador Dalí. Among them are All Quiet on the Western Front, Animal Crackers starring the Marx Brothers, 1931 best picture winner Cimarron, and two Marlene Dietrich films, Morocco and The Blue Angel.

Several movies on the list feature future stars in their early days: Bing Crosby’s first feature-film appearance in King of Jazz, Greta Garbo’s first talkie Anna Christie and The Big Trail, John Wayne’s first leading role.

Notably, Jenkins says, the films on this year’s list all predate the Hays Code, a set of self-imposed studio guidelines that banned subjects from profanity, violence and nudity to interracial relationships and “lustful kissing” in movies from 1934 to 1968.

The musical compositions include “Georgia on my Mind,” “Dream a Little Dream of Me” and four songs by Ira and George Gershwin: “I Got Rhythm,” “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” “But Not for Me” and “Embraceable You.” Among the artworks are Piet Mondrian’s “Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow” and the Jules Rimet Cup by Abel Lafleur — the original trophy of the FIFA World Cup from 1930 to 1970.

Jenkins says her four-person team spent more than 500 hours over several months poring through the archives to compile this year’s list. Writing the online summary was another feat, one she says kept her busy from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. over the course of two weeks.

But she thinks the crick in her neck is a small price to pay for shining a light on the value of public domain in “nurturing creativity and enabling access.”

“What’s really fun is that people are excited about it — people well beyond our world of copyright lawyers — especially when they start recognizing these works,” she says. “And for me, one of the most exciting things is when you revisit a work that you loved in a different period of your life and get to look at it again.”

Books

CHARACTERS, COMICS, CARTOONS

FILMS

  • All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Lewis Milestone (winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture)
  • King of Jazz, directed by John Murray Anderson (musical revue featuring Paul Whiteman and Bing Crosby’s first feature-film appearance)
  • Cimarron, directed by Wesley Ruggles (winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture, registered for copyright in 1930)
  • Animal Crackers, directed by Victor Heerman (starring the Marx Brothers)
  • Soup to Nuts, directed by Benjamin Stoloff (written by Rube Goldberg, featuring later members of The Three Stooges)
  • Morocco, directed by Josef von Sternberg (starring Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, and Adolphe Menjou)
  • The Blue Angel (Der blaue Engel), directed by Josef von Sternberg (starring Marlene Dietrich)
  • Anna Christie, directed by Clarence Brown (Greta Garbo’s first talkie)
  • Hell’s Angels, directed by Howard Hughes (Jean Harlow’s film debut)
  • The Big Trail, directed by Raoul Walsh (John Wayne’s first leading role)
  • The Big House, directed by George Hill
  • Murder!, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
  • L’Âge d’Or, directed by Luis Buñuel, written by Buñuel and Salvador Dalí
  • Free and Easy, directed by Edward Sedgwick (Buster Keaton’s first speaking role)
  • The Divorcee, directed by Robert Z. Leonard
  • Whoopee!, directed by Thornton Freeland

MUSIC

SOUND RECORDINGS

ART

Read more via Centre for the Study of Public Domain/Duke University

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