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Welcome to the Public Domain in 2025 (archive.org)
165 points by ecliptik 40 days ago | hide | past | favorite | 14 comments




Awesome. But the world would be even better if copyright expired after 60 years. That should be enough time for a 30-year old to get their share's worth of royalties until they're 90.


I have to say that, looking at the films from 1930, I am a good deal more excited about next year: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000050037/

Man, what was in the water in 1930.


Looks like that’s a list of films from the 1930s (the whole decade). Four of the listed films are from 1930 if you sort by release date.¹

¹ https://www.imdb.com/list/ls000050037/?sort=release_date%2Ca...


Wow, you're right. That ... explains a lot.


Probably a healthy dose of lead, arsenic, and all that other goodness.


2025: Everything old is new again


> On January 1, 2025, we celebrate published works from 1929 and published sound recordings from 1924 entering the public domain!

We live in repressive societies in which the state forbids making copies of things for 100 years.

And it annoys me even more when I remember these restrictions can be traced back to the corrupt protectionist collusion between British Queen Anne and the printers' guild:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statute_of_Anne

... but even they did not presume to prohibit copying for more than 14 years. Now it's seven times longer than that.


Related:

What will enter the public domain in 2025?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42290448


In the USA... In the UK, for instance, even old copyrights tend to run from the death of the creator. So it's still a long wait for a Hitchcock film.


Connect to a USA server over RDP or SSH, read Gutenberg ebooks and watch movies there :D


I followed the link to The Opry House [1] and ended up watching it to the end. I had forgotten how much fun the early animators had with their versatile new tool.

[1] https://archive.org/details/the-opry-house-1929_202412


If you want to know more about how these animations came to life I highly recommend the biography of Walt Disney by Neal Gabler.


> Ain't Misbehavin

> Singing in the Rain

> An American in Paris

Is anyone here in community theater? Does this open up possibilities for you?




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