2023 public domain debuts include last Sherlock Holmes work

FILE - A Museum of London employee poses for photographers next to an 1897 oil on canvas portrait of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by illustrator Sidney Paget on display as part of the exhibition "Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die" at the Museum of London in London, Oct. 16, 2014. Sherlock Holmes is finally free to the public in 2023. The long dispute on contested copyright on Doyle's tales of a whip-smart detective will come to an end in 2022, as the final Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle will be released on Saturday, Dec. 31, as copyrights from 1927 expire on Jan. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File) (Matt Dunham, Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

WASHINGTON ā€“ Sherlock Holmes is finally free to the American public in 2023.

The long-running contested copyright dispute over Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's tales of a whipsmart detective ā€” which has even ensnared Enola Holmes ā€” will finally come to an end as the 1927 copyrights expiring Jan. 1 include Conan Doyle's last Sherlock Holmes work.

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Alongside the short-story collection ā€œThe Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes," books such as Virginia Woolf's ā€œTo The Lighthouse,ā€ Ernest Hemingway's ā€œMen Without Women,ā€ William Faulkner's "Mosquitoes" and Agatha Christie's ā€œThe Big Fourā€ ā€” an Hercule Poirot mystery ā€” will become public domain as the calendar turns to 2023.

Once a work enters the public domain it can legally be shared, performed, reused, repurposed or sampled without permission or cost. The works from 1927 were originally supposed to be copyrighted for 75 years, but the 1998 Copyright Term Extension Act delayed opening them up for an additional 20 years.

While many prominent works on the list used those extra two decades to earn their copyright holders good money, a Duke University expert says the copyright protections also applied to ā€œall of the works whose commercial viability had long subsided.ā€

ā€œFor the vast majorityā€”probably 99%ā€”of works from 1927, no copyright holder financially benefited from continued copyright. Yet they remained off limits, for no good reason,ā€ Jennifer Jenkins, director of Dukeā€™s Center for the Study of the Public Domain, wrote in a blog post heralding "Public Domain Day 2023."

That long U.S. copyright period meant many works that would now become available have long since been lost, because they were not profitable to maintain by the legal owners, but couldnā€™t be used by others. On the Duke list are such ā€œlostā€ films like Victor Fleming's ā€œThe Way of All Fleshā€ and Tod Browning's ā€œLondon After Midnight.ā€

1927 portended the silent film era's end with the release of the first ā€œtalkieā€ ā€” a film with dialogue in it. That was ā€œThe Jazz Singer,ā€ the historic first feature-length film with synchronized dialogue also notorious for Al Jolson's blackface performance.

In addition to the Alan Crosland-directed film, other movies like ā€œWingsā€ ā€” directed by William A. Wellman and the ā€œoutstanding productionā€ winner at the very first Oscars ā€” and Fritz Lang's seminal science-fiction classic ā€œMetropolisā€ will enter the public domain.

Musical compositions ā€” the music and lyrics found on sheet music, not the sound recordings ā€” on the list include hits from Broadway musicals like ā€œFunny Faceā€ and jazz standards from the likes of legends like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, in addition to Irving Berlin's ā€œPuttin' on the Ritzā€ and ā€œ(I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for) Ice Creamā€ by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll and Robert A. King.

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Duke's Center for the Public Domain highlighted notable books, movies and musical compositions entering the public domain ā€” just a fraction of the thousands due to be unleashed in 2023.

BOOKS

ā€” ā€œThe Gangs of New York,ā€ by Herbert Asbury (original publication)

ā€” ā€œDeath Comes for the Archbishop,ā€ by Willa Cather

ā€” ā€œThe Big Four,ā€ by Agatha Christie

ā€” ā€œThe Tower Treasure,ā€ the first Hardy Boys mystery by the pseudonymous Franklin W. Dixon

ā€” ā€œThe Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes,ā€ by Arthur Conan Doyle

ā€” ā€œCopper Sun,ā€ by Countee Cullen

ā€” ā€œMosquitoes,ā€ by William Faulkner

ā€” ā€œMen Without Women,ā€ by Ernest Hemingway

ā€” ā€œDer Steppenwolf,ā€ by Herman Hesse (in German)

ā€” ā€œAmerika," by Franz Kafka (in German)

ā€” ā€œNow We Are Six,ā€ by A.A. Milne with illustrations from E.H. Shepard

ā€” ā€œLe Temps retrouvĆ©,ā€ by Marcel Proust (in French)

ā€” ā€œTwilight Sleep,ā€ by Edith Wharton

ā€” ā€œThe Bridge of San Luis Rey,ā€ by Thornton Wilder

ā€” ā€œTo The Lighthouse,ā€ by Virginia Woolf

MOVIES

ā€” ā€œ7th Heaven,ā€ directed by Frank Borzage

ā€” ā€œThe Battle of the Century,ā€ a Laurel and Hardy film directed by Clyde Bruckman

ā€” ā€œThe Kid Brother,ā€ directed by Ted Wilde

ā€” ā€œThe Jazz Singer,ā€ directed by Alan Crosland

ā€” ā€œThe Lodger: A Story of the London Fog,ā€ directed by Alfred Hitchcock

ā€” ā€œMetropolis,ā€ directed by Fritz Lang

ā€” ā€œSunrise,ā€ directed by F.W. Murnau

ā€” ā€œUpstream,ā€ directed by John Ford

ā€” ā€œWings,ā€ directed by William A. Wellman

MUSICAL COMPOSITIONS

ā€” ā€œBack Water Blues,ā€ ā€œPreaching the Bluesā€ and ā€œFoolish Man Bluesā€ (Bessie Smith)

ā€” ā€œThe Best Things in Life Are Free,ā€ from the musical ā€œGood Newsā€ (George Gard ā€œBuddyā€ De Sylva, Lew Brown, Ray Henderson)

ā€” ā€œBilly Goat Stomp,ā€ ā€œHyena Stompā€ and ā€œJungle Bluesā€ (Ferdinand Joseph Morton)

ā€” ā€œBlack and Tan Fantasyā€ and ā€œEast St. Louis Toodle-Oā€ (Bub Miley, Duke Ellington)

ā€” ā€œCanā€™t Help Lovinā€™ Dat Manā€ and ā€œOlā€™ Man River,ā€ from the musical ā€œShow Boatā€ (Oscar Hammerstein II, Jerome Kern)

ā€” ā€œDianeā€ (Erno Rapee, Lew Pollack)

ā€” ā€œFunny Faceā€ and ā€œā€™S Wonderful,ā€ from the musical ā€œFunny Faceā€ (Ira and George Gershwin)

ā€” ā€œ(I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for) Ice Creamā€ (Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, Robert A. King)

ā€” ā€œMississippi Mudā€ (Harry Barris, James Cavanaugh)

ā€” ā€œMy Blue Heavenā€ (George Whiting, Walter Donaldson)

ā€” ā€œPotato Head Blues" and Gully Low Bluesā€ (Louis Armstrong)

ā€” ā€œPuttinā€™ on the Ritzā€ (Irving Berlin)

ā€” ā€œRusty Pail Blues,ā€ ā€œSloppy Water Bluesā€ and ā€œSoothinā€™ Syrup Stompā€ (Thomas Waller)


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