There's one more reason to celebrate each new year: more and more works enter the public domain, thus freeing new creative ideas that were previously protected by copyright. Each country has its own rules in this sense, but if we think of the USA, probably the largest producer of content in the contemporary world, in a few days all the works published in 1927 will be "free". They will belong to the public, to us. To everyone.
For months the world of science fiction has been in fibrillation due to the arrival in the world of the public domain of Metropolis, Fritz Lang's masterpiece that inspired and anticipated generations of writers, some scientists and the idea of transferring consciousness into a machine. Gaudeamus igitur. There's more though: and it's really a lot of flab. Among these, for example, there is the latest series of Sherlock Holmes stories by Conan Doyle. Now anyone can use the famous investigator and his assistant, John Watson, to rework and reinterpret their stories (perhaps solving modern cases): the "liberated" works are "The Adventure of the Veiled Tenant" and "The Adventure of Shoscombe Old Place". Meanwhile beccatevi free audiobook of the first.
Lots of new creativity
As mentioned, when the works enter the public domain anyone can use, modify and distribute them for free. This is why the public domain plays an important role: and this is why copyright laws give authors essential rights to produce and disseminate works only for a limited period of time. When these rights expire, authors can use past works to create new ones. Adapting books into movies, or turning songs into plays. This process of "legal reconstruction" is a wonderful opportunity to exercise creativity. It's a bit like giving new life to these same works.
Public Domain: Who Else Is There?
Come on, we'll have something for all tastes. you want Hermann Hesse? There is "the steppe wolf", the story of a man with a rather gloomy and shady character, who suddenly disappears leaving a compelling manuscript as a keepsake. How about Virginia Woolf? "Trip to the Lighthouse", which narrates the life of an entire family, and universal themes such as those of the parent-child relationship. We have yellow with "Poirot and the Four", by Agatha Christie (maybe one of her worst, but it's still her). And that "The Gangs of New York" by Herbert Asbury, a great success at the cinema just a few years ago. Many others complete the public domain group, among which I point out three gems:
- Men without women, by Ernest Hemingway;
- America, by Franz Kafka;
- The future of an illusion, of Sigmund Freud.
There is also some music
In 1927 there was good stuff, which we could now find in some sampling. Duke Ellington he will "give" us two songs, Black and Tan Fantasy e East St. Louis Toodle-Oo (this last piece has already received the homage, in 1993, by Steely Dan). Feel how wonderful! And then again works by Louis Armstrong and other authors.
The crazy XNUMXs are a key moment in popular culture, which is why public domain material will be so interesting. Last year, the copyright expiration saw the arrival of a huge Winnie Pooh: and it is no coincidence that the sweet teddy bear was immediately thrown into the fray. In a horror movie. Who knows how these new works will be used! In the meantime I've put down a couple of things with Midjourney, I hope you like this little gallery.




