copyrightlately: “From Nancy Drew to Animal Crackers to The Maltese Falcon, 1930’s greatest works enter the U.S. public domain on January 1, 2026. Expect celebration, confusion, and at least one Betty Boop slasher film. Sorry in advance…I’ve listed over 150 notable works entering the public domain at the end of this article. But as always, Public Domain Day 2026 arrives with a number of significant works that deserve a closer look—as well as plenty of caveats, asterisks and traps for the unwary. So before you rush off to put Blondie, Nancy Drew, and Betty Boop in a Charlie’s Angels-style crossover—and one of you absolutely will—here’s what you need to know.

Before we get to the finer points, a quick refresher on how the math works. For twenty years—from 1998 to 2018—no new works entered the U.S. public domain, thanks to the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA). At the time, pre-1978 works received up to 75 years of copyright protection, meaning works from 1923 were set to enter the public domain on January 1, 1999. But the CTEA added another 20 years, extending the term to 95 years and pushing public domain entry back to January 1, 2019. The freeze finally thawed that year, when works from 1923 became free to use. Since then, Public Domain Day has ushered in a steady stream of new arrivals each January 1. Works first published in 1930 will see their copyrights expire in 2025—but because copyright protection lasts through the end of the calendar year, those works don’t actually become public domain until January 1, 2026. That’s why Nancy Drew’s debut in The Secret of the Old Clock won’t be free to use until that old clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Day—even though the character officially celebrated her 95th birthday on April 28, 2025, the anniversary of the book’s original publication…”