Published For Public

New Year, new Public Domain additions! That’s how the saying goes, right? In 2020-2021, several big names entered the domain that allows for any published spinoff, fanwork, or artistic property based on copyrighted intellectual property (such as a book, movie, music, etc.) to be created by anyone. The most notable of which was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, published in April 1925. The novel spawned a variety of unorthodox works to hit publishing companies, such as The Great Gatsby Undead by Kristen Briggs, Nick by Michael Farris Smith, and even fanfiction like The Pursued and The Pursuing by A.J. Odasso (which was originally posted to fanfiction site Article of Our Own (or AO3)). 

As of this year, the most notable work that entered the public sphere is A.A. Milne’s (and decorator E.H. Shephard’s) celebrated work, Winnie the Pooh (which met publication a year after Gatsby). Entering alongside Milne and Shephard’s novel is Felix Salten’s 1923 fiction work Bambi, which is much darker than Disney ever made it out to be (despite the fact the movie was a prime source of childhood trauma). Aside from novels, over 400,000 audio recordings made their way into the public sphere, according to duke.edu. Among these recordings is Billy Murray’s 1904 hit, “Give My Regards to Broadway,” and others published before 1923, respectively. 

So, what does this mean for these renowned titles? To be specific, and as elaborated before, these works are subject to whatever the public wants to do with them. If someone wants to make a film about or including these works or IPs, they do not have to obtain any rights for their usage. Despite this, they can NOT own the material. In Milne and Shephard’s case, Winnie the Pooh is still their work, and it will be until the end of time. Also until the end of time, projects will continue to be finished, published, and presented to consumers who may inevitably become producers of related projects and works.