The new year 2026 will begin in just one day and as usual, January 1st of each year will open the door for comic book characters, books, music, films and various works of art to enter the public domain in the United States. In general, thousands of works published in the 1930s and sound recordings from 1925 are now officially free to use, share, adapt and reconstruct by anyone.
The comic book characters that have entered the public domain are the original version of Betty Boop, the dogs Pluto/Rover and Blondie & Dagwood. The first nine Mickey Mouse cartoons, and the 10 Silly Symphonies animations published by Disney have also entered the public domain. The original counterparts of these iconic characters can be used without having to pay the original copyright holder.
For book fans, some of the interesting ones are As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett and The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie which is the first Miss Marple novel. Also entering the public domain are the first four Nancy Drew novels and Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents.
In the film category, some of the notable works now in the public domain are All Quiet on the Western Front, Cimarron, Hell's Angels and Murder! directed by Alfred Hitchcock. This is just a short list of works in the public domain. To see the full list, please visit the link below.
