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Copyright

Popular Media Now in the Public Domain

Title screen of the film Steamboat Willie

The first depiction of the famous Mickey Mouse, originally known as Steamboat Willie, fell into public domain in 2024. In the next three years, more Disney intellectual property such as Pluto (2026), Goofy (2028) and Donald Duck (2029) will also become available. 

Original book cover of The Great Gatsby

In 2021, Fitzgerald's story The Great Gatsby became public domain thus allowing for derivative works to be made. In the same month the original story became public domain, Michael Farris Smith published Nick which is a prequel to the riveting work of Fitzgerald. A copy of this novel can be found at the San Marcos Public Library just 5 minutes away from the San Marcos campus! More information on this creative work can be found on the San Marcos catalog and you can learn more about checking out from the public library using your Bobcat card on the TexShare page. 

What is it?

If a work is within the public domain, there are no copyright ownership issues associated with it.

This is because the work was either never eligible for copyright protection OR, the term of copyright protection has expired.

Therefore, anyone may reproduce, redistribute, or adapt the work and there is no longer a need to seek permission for its use. However, this does not mean you can claim copyright ownership over work that enters the Public Domain with no changes. To receive copyright protection on work based off of Public Domain sources, an author must significantly change the sorce material. 

Every year on January 1st, new material enters the public domain. Currently, everything published in and before 1929 is considered public domain. For help searching for this material, check out our HathiTrust guide:

Additional Resources: Public Domain