It's almost 2023, and Sherlock Holmes is almost copyright free

[Free]

This does not help me get my car fixed, but I'm sure some folk will be thankful.

Sherlock Holmes will finally escape copyright this weekend

Along with a wealth of silent films.

www.theverge.com

[T]he start of 2023 will mark the end of US copyrights on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s final Sherlock Holmes stories — along with the seminal science fiction movie Metropolis, Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, and the first full-length “talkie” film The Jazz Singer.

This page at Duke University mentions a lot of the books, films and music breaking out of copyright on January 1:

Public Domain Day 2023 | Duke University School of Law

Tweet       By Jennifer Jenkins, Director of Duke’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are open to all! On January 1, 2023, copyrighted works from 1927 will enter the US public domain. 1  They will be free for all to copy, share, and...

web.law.duke.edu

I will note that The Best Things in Life Are Free, (I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for) Ice Cream, Puttin’ on the Ritz and Funny Face are among the songs that join the public domain, and which is quite a collection.

Steamboat Willie, aka the first appearance of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, takes a bow in 2024. I'm looking forward to the fireworks over Disney Land for that one.

 

[Chalice Yao]

Steamboat Willie, aka the first appearance of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, takes a bow in 2024. I'm looking forward to the fireworks over Disney Land for that one.

Won't do much, as Steamboat Willie and the normal Mickey Mouse are not quite alike. Disney will maul anybody who thinks that Mickey Mouse is public domain when 2024 comes.

Edit:

Also, the fact that Metropolis, *now*, is Public Domain, shows how absuredly long Disney managed to extrend copyright laws.

 

[Free]

Won't do much, as Steamboat Willie and the normal Mickey Mouse are not quite alike.

I think you may be underestimating the creativity of animators who both 1. hate Disney and 2. would love to test certain legal boundaries. But I could be wrong.

 

[Soen Eber]

I'm really surprised that Disney hasn't bought the Sherlock Holmes copyrights. They own everything else.

 

[Veritable Quandry]

Disney will lose copyright on Steamboat Willie, but they will continue to have trademark protection. And a very aggressive legal department.