Some Classic Works Are Now Free in the Public Domain

Some Classic Works Are Now Free in the Public Domain¹

　　As the calendar turns to 2023, some classic works of literature, music and movies are now available for use at no cost to the American public.

　　The classics include The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, the last collection of stories about the famous detective written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

　　Some works from famous writers also became free in the new year. They include Virginia Woolf's To The Lighthouse, Ernest Hemingway's Men Without Women, William Faulkner's Mosquitoes and Agatha Christie's The Big Four.

　　One of the movies to be free is Wings, a 1927 film directed by William A. Wellman, which was named the outstanding production winner at the very first Oscars award ceremony.

　　Other films from 1927 are also now free to the public. Among them are The Jazz Singer, the first full-length movie with synchronized² dialogue, and Fritz Lang's science-fiction Metropolis³.

　　Several well-known musical compositions – the music and words, not the sound recordings⁵ - are also on the list of creative works available for free. They include the Broadway musical Funny Face, jazz music works from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin's classic Puttin' on the Ritz, and I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll and Robert A. King.

　　These works are among the thousands of books, movies, and musical compositions entering what is called the public domain in 2023.

　　Under United States copyright law, once a work enters the public domain, it can legally be shared, performed, reused, repurposed, or sampled without permission or cost.

　　The works from the year 1927 were first supposed to be protected by copyrights for 75 years. But in 1998, U.S. law extended copyright protection for another 20 years.

　　Jennifer Jenkins is the director of Duke University's Center for the Study of the Public Domain. She wrote that "For the vast majority — probably 99 percent — of works from 1927, no copyright holder⁶ financially benefited from continued copyright. Yet they remained off limits, for no good reason."

　　Jenkins added that the long U.S. copyright period meant many works that would now become available have long since been lost. She said they were not profitable⁷ to maintain by the legal owners, but they could not be used by others. The list of "lost" films kept by the Duke University center includes Victor Fleming's The Way of All Flesh and Tod Browning's London After Midnight.

　　The Public Domain Review calls each January 1st a Public Domain Day. The publication notes that "there is no one single public domain," adding that countries have different laws to bring creative works into the public domain.

　　For example, Britain, most of Europe and South America, permit works by people who died in 1952 to enter the public domain after 70 years. In most of Africa and Asia, the terms are 50 years after death.

　　Words in This Story

　　calendar –n. a document showing the days, weeks and months of the year

　　classic –adj. a good example of some form, work, product or object

　　literature –n. written works that are meaningful for a long time

　　detective –n. a police officer or person whose job it is to find information about crimes

　　synchronized dialogue –n. having the sound of spoken words match images in a movie

　　composition –n. a piece of artistic⁸ work or writing, especially musical compositions

　　public domain –n. the group of works and some forms of property that are not considered to be owned by anyone and, therefore, can be used without cost by people

　　sample –v. to use a small part a recording⁴ in another recording

　　vast –adj. very great in size and extent

　　benefit –v. to receive some good result from something

1 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

2 synchronized   

同步的

参考例句：

• Do not use the synchronized keyword in Managed Objects. 不要在管理对象上使用synchronized关键字。 来自互联网
• The timing of the gun was precisely synchronized with the turning of the plane's propeller. 风门的调速与飞机螺旋桨的转动精确同步。 来自辞典例句

3 metropolis   

n.首府；大城市

参考例句：

• Shanghai is a metropolis in China.上海是中国的大都市。
• He was dazzled by the gaiety and splendour of the metropolis.大都市的花花世界使他感到眼花缭乱。

4 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

5 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

6 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

7 profitable   

adj.有益的，能带来利益的，有利可图的

参考例句：

• That business became profitable last year.那项生意去年变得很赚钱。
• The convention business is very profitable for the hotel industry.承办会议业务能给旅馆业带来很高的利润。

8 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。