Public Domain Day 2026
While January 1st is celebrated the world over as New Year’s Day, the date is also known as Public Domain Day. Public Domain Day brings awareness to works and creations which lose their copyright protections and enter the public domain. Beginning on January 1st, 2026, works published or produced during the year 1930 enter the public domain. Sound recordings follow a different schedule; sound recordings produced during 1925 will enter the public domain while sound recordings from 1930 are still protected by copyright (Boyle and Jenkins, 2025). This year’s new additions include some early works of famous literature, movies and classic cartoon characters.
What is the Public Domain?
The public domain is a legal concept that describes works no longer protected by copyright law. Works in the public domain can be reused by others in new and unique ways. For instance, creators have used public domain material to create new works. Public domain designation also reduces barriers to preservation and dissemination. Some recent examples of works incorporating new additions to the public domain include a Steamboat Willie horror game and Nick, a novel about Nick Carraway, a character from The Great Gatsby. Archivists can take steps to convert at-risk material without having to worry about copyright protections (Boyle and Jenkins, 2025). Digitalized material in the public domain can be shared online through digital exhibits and digital repositories.
Notable new entries to public domain
1930’s addition to the public domain includes some famous pieces of literature. Early versions of cartoon characters and novel characters of much more renowned later version are also part of works which have lost their copyright projection this year. The list of new additions includes:
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
- The first four Nancy Drew novels
- A classic children’s book, The Little Engine that Could (1930 edition)
- Soup and Nuts, a film featuring several future Three Stooges such as Moe Howard, Shemp Howard and Larry Fine).
- The first cartoons featuring an early version of Betty Boop
- Agatha Christie’s Murder at the Vicarage. This novel is the first one featuring Miss Marple
- Murder! A film directed by Alfred Hitchcock
- Georgia on my Mind lyrics by Gus Kahn
- Artwork such as Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow
(List from Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle, Public Domain Day 2026)
Sound recordings from 1925 enter the public domain this year as well. Some of these works include classic Jazz and gospel songs including
- Nobody Knows de Trouble I’ve Seen sung by Marian Anderson
- Manhattan by The Knickerbockers
- The Saint Louis Blues by Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong
(List from Jenkins and Boyle, 2025).
If you are interested in jazz or just music from a bygone era, these additions to the public domain are not to be missed!
Resources for public domain works
The above sampling is just a few of the hundreds of new additions to the public domain. If you are curious where new additions to the public domain can be found, the Internet Archive and HathiTrust are both good places to start. In fact, the Internet Archive is holding a film contest for Public Domain Day. Participants are encouraged to create their own movies using content from the public domain (Internet Archive, 2025). For eBook versions of novels and literature, Project Gutenberg is good resource to consult. Finally, The Center for the Study of the Public Domain, a division of the Duke Law School, has additional resources and links for works which have entered the public domain.
People find all kinds of creative ways to use public domain material. Even within the first week of the new year, a new tabletop roleplaying game that uses plot points and characters from the first four Nancy Drew novels has premiered on Kickstarter. You never what kind of creative opportunities you might find!
Charles Gallagher is a Research and Instruction Librarian at the Catholic University of America Libraries.
References
Freeland, C. (2025, December 1st). 2026 Public Domain Film Remix Contest: The Internet Archive is Looking for Creative short Films Made By You! Internet Archive Blogs. Retrieved January 12, 2026, from https://blog.archive.org/2025/12/01/2026-public-domain-day-remix-contest/
Jenkins, J., & Boyle, J. (2025). Public Domain Day 2026. Center for the Study of the Public Domain. Retrieved 01/12/2026, from https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2026/
Further Reading
Internet Archive. Celebrate the Public Domain with the Internet Archive: 2026. Internet Archive Blogs. Retrieved January 12, 2026, from https://blog.archive.org/public-domain-day-2026/
Moss, A. (2025, December 7th). Public Domain Day 2026 is Coming: Here’s What to Know. Copyright Lately. Retrieved January 12, 2026, from https://copyrightlately.com/public-domain-2026/
Treisman, R. (2025, December 26). The Cultural Works Becoming Public Domain in 2026, from Betty Boop to Nancy Drew. National Public Radio. Retrieved January 12, 2026, from https://www.npr.org/2025/12/26/nx-s1-5649395/public-domain-2026-copyright-betty-boop-pluto