Thanks to public ownership, Tintin can now skeleton dance to Rhapsody in Blue

It’s the start of a new year, which means a new batch of creative works have entered the public domain. Today, many materials that were copyrighted in 1929, along with audio recordings from 1924, are fair game to freely adapt, reuse, copy and share. Center for Public Property at Duke University School of Law collected Some of the most popular properties entering the public domain at the start of 2025.

This is a big year when it comes to movies, with many notable directors releasing their first projects with sound, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s blackmail and Cecil B. DeMille dynamite. 1929 was also the year Walt Disney directed the iconic film Skeleton dance Animated shorts by Ub Iwerks, as well as when Mickey Mouse starred in his first talkie. The gritty Tintin characters and the original Popeye characters have reached the public domain as well.

The compositions of many great songs have entered the public domain today. There are memorable show tunes like Singing in the rain and An American in Paris Along with jazz standards Don’t misbehave and (What Did I Do to Be That) Black and Blue And classic hits like Masterpiece Bolero. On the side of the recording are compositions such as George Gershwin’s beautiful ballad Rhapsody in blue And legendary singer Marian Anderson takes his part My path is cloudy.

Finally, several authors have titles in the Duke Law Report. Noir fans will be happy to see Dashiell Hammett Maltese falcon and Red harvest here. Other notable literary works now in the public domain include: Private room for an individual By Virginia Woolf, Farewell to arms By Ernest Hemingway, The Seven Faces Puzzle By Agatha Christie and Sound and fury By William Faulkner. For poetry lovers, the original German version by Rainer Maria Rilke Letters to a young poet Also on the list.