December 16, 2020

The famous films, books & songs entering the public domain

Famous films, books and songs will soon enter the public domain

(Clockwise: The Great Gatsby, Lovers in Quarantine, Harold Lloyd in The Freshman, sheet music forYes Sir! That's My Baby, Charlie Chaplin in The Gold Rush, Rudolph Valentino in The Eagle, all published in 1925.)

Expert panels, 1925 music & films at  Public Domain Day Celebration Thursday, Dec 17, 3-4 PM PST

RSVP HERE

On January 1, 2021, copyrighted works from 1925 will enter the US public domain, where they will be free for all to use and creatively reinterpret. These works include books such as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, Ernest Hemingway’s In Our Time, and Franz Kafka’s The Trial (in the original German), silent films featuring Harold Lloyd, Charles Chaplin and Buster Keaton, and music ranging from the jazz standard Sweet Georgia Brown to songs by Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, W.C. Handy, and Fats Waller. Even Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf was first published in 1925. 

As Jennifer Jenkins at Duke Law’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain notes, “works from 1925 were supposed to go into the public domain in 2001, after being copyrighted for 75 years. But before this could happen, Congress hit a 20-year pause button and extended their copyright term to 95 years. Now the wait is over.”

To celebrate the rich works coming into the Public Domain on January 1, the Internet Archive is hosting an event featuring thought leaders in copyright, creative reuse, intellectual property and social justice. Meanwhile, copyright lawyers will mix Gatsby-inspired gin rickeys, while a quartet plays a medley of 1925 tunes. We will also screen the winners of the Public Domain Film Contest.

Many of the books, films and music that will be free for all to use on January 1 are available for viewing on the Internet Archive: 

Books First Published in 1925

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

• Der Prozess by Franz Kafka (The trial in English)

• The professor’s house by Willa Cather

• No more parades by Ford Madox Ford

• The Thundering Herd by Zane Grey

• Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis

• The mother’s recompense by Edith Wharton

• The writing of fiction by Edith Wharton

• Christina Alberta’s father by H. G. Wells

• A year of prophesying by H. G. Wells

• Wild Geese by Martha Ostenso

• Manhattan transfer John Dos Passos

• Porgy by DuBose Heyward (became Porgy & Bess in 1935)

• Gentlemen prefer blondes by Anita Loos

Movies Released in 1925

• The Big parade

• The Freshman (Harold Lloyd)

• The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin)

• The Lost World

• Don Q Son of Zorro (Douglas Fairbanks)

• Little Annie Rooney (Mary Pickford)

• The Phantom of the Opera (Lon Chaney)

• The Unholy Three (Lon Chaney)

• Ben Hur (Ramon Novarro)

• Curses (Fatty Arbuckle)

• The Eagle (Rudolph Valentino)

• Go West (Buster Keaton)

• The Lady (Norma Talmadge) 

• The Monster (Lon Chaney)

• The Plastic Age (Clara Bow)

• Seven Chances (Buster Keaton)

• The Wizard of Oz (Oliver Hardy)

• Lady of the Night (Norma Shearer)

For a tour of some of the hidden gems from 1925, read this background article by the Internet Archive’s Director of Media, Alexis Rossi. PRESS CONTACT: Wendy Hanamura wendy@archive.org 415-335-0895

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