Happy Public Domain Day, 2025

Quick Take

Happy New Year’s Day, readers — and Happy Public Domain Day. Every January 1st, we get to celebrate not only the greatest day of college football but also the greatest day for release from copyright of great works of literature, music, art, and other previously copyrighted material — at least in the United States. This year’s releases include material predominately from 1929, the end of the Roaring 20’s.

Last year’s Public Domain Day received a lot of press because of the entry of one of the most protected icons of all, Mickey Mouse. This year another twelve Mickey Mouse cartoons enter the public domain, including The Karnival Kid (with Mickey’s first spoken words, “Hot dogs! Hot dogs!”) and the bizarre The Barnyard Battle in which Mickey and a group of Confederate soldier-mice defend a farm from the advance of German cat soldiers led by Mickey’s arch-nemesis, Pete. Scenes from The Barnyard Battle include a rather shocking physical examination, scenes of trench warfare, and a soundtrack led off by “Dixie.” Other characters featured in this year’s Mickey releases include Minnie, Pete, Kat Nipp, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, and Patricia Pig. Popey and Tin Tin also enter the public domain through their comic strips.

Works of fiction include some of the greatest works of “literature between the wars.” William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, and the first English translation of Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front all enter the public domain. Virginia Woolf’s landmark A Room of One’s Own was published in 1929 as was John Steinbeck’s first novel, Cup of Gold (a work of historical fiction loosely based upon the life of the Caribbean pirate Henry Morgan).

Some of the compositions of the year are “Singin’ in the Rain’ (Arthur Freed and Nacio Herb Brown), “Ain’t Misbehavin’“ (Andy Paul Razaf and Thomas “Fats” Waller), An American in Paris (George Gershwin), Boléro (Maurice Ravel), “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” (Alfred Dubin and Joseph Burke), “What Is This Thing Called Love?“ (Cole Porter), and “Waiting for a Train” (Jimmie Rodgers). The releases above allow anyone to perform or revise these works, but they do not cover any particular performance. In fact, through one of the many quirks in US copyright law, performances take five more years to enter the public domain, meaning this year’s public domain performances come from 1924. Specific performances entering the public domain include George Gershwin’s own version of “Rhapsody in Blue,” Jelly Roll Morton’s “Shreveport Stomp,” and Al Jolson’s “California Here I Come.” (Click here for a Veritas Journal Spotify playlist featuring these songs).

Happy Public Domain Day!

Check out more bizarre Mickey tales from the early days of Disney using the links below. And feel free to download, remix, or share to your heart’s content without fear of copyright violation.