Celebrate Public Domain Day 2024 with us: Weird Tales from the Public Domain

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href="https://opensource.creativecommons.org/" target="_blank">Open Source</a> <p>Help us build products that maximize creativity and innovation</p> </li> </ul> </nav> </div> </header> <article class="attention low-importance"> <p><span style="font-weight: 400">CC is a small nonprofit fighting for the open web. We need your support to continue our work</span>. <a href="https://www.classy.org/give/313412/#!/donation/checkout?c_src=website&c_src2=temp-banner">Donate today!</a></p> </article> <span id="main-content-marker"></span> <main> <header> <h1>Celebrate Public Domain Day 2024 with us: Weird Tales from the Public Domain</h1> <span class="byline">by <a href="https://creativecommons.org/person/cc/">Creative Commons</a> </span>  <span class="categories"> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/category/policy/copyright/" rel="category tag">Copyright</a></span>  </header>  <figure id="post-74443 media-74443" class="align-none"> <p><div style="width: 488px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" src="https://creativecommons.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/WEIRD-TALES-AMENDED_1080-300x300.png" alt="An image with " width="478" height="478" /><p class="wp-caption-text">“<a href="https://blog.archive.org/2023/12/05/weird-tales-from-the-public-domain-freeing-culture-from-corporate-captivity/">Original art by illustrator Freya C. Morgan</a>”. Internet Archive.</p></div></figure> <p>Join Creative Commons, Internet Archive, and many other leaders from the open world to celebrate Public Domain Day 2024. The mouse that became Mickey will finally be free of his corporate captivity as the copyright term of the 1928 animated Disney film, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steamboat_Willie">Steamboat Willie</a>, expires along with that of thousands of other cultural works on the first day of 2024.</p> <p>The year 1928 brought us a host of still relevant, oft-revived and remixed culture, from H.P. Lovecraft’s classic horror story, “Call of Cthulhu” (originally published in Weird Tales; now currently a popular <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_of_Cthulhu_(video_game)">video game</a>), to the Threepenny Opera, a critique of income inequality and the excesses of capitalism that is surprisingly on point for our current era.</p> <p>And further, classic works of literature such as Orlando by Virginia Woolfe, Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, and Black Magic by Paul Mourad; children’s literature like House on Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne, which introduced the character Tigger, and Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág; movies like Charlie Chaplin’s The Circus, and Buster Keaton’s The Cameraman; and music like Dorothy Field’s “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love, Baby” and Cole Porter’s “Let’s Do It, Let’s Fall in Love” will grow the rich set of materials that are freely available to all of us as part of the public domain.</p> <p><strong>Join us for a virtual celebration at 10am PT / 1pm ET on 25 January, 2024</strong>, with an amazing lineup of academics, librarians, musicians, artists and advocates coming together to help illuminate the significance of this new class of works entering the public domain!</p> <p>Of course our program wouldn’t be complete without a discussion of Generative AI, which to some has become a new kind of Eldritch God unleashed upon humanity—a Chtulhu of sorts—out to alter or control human reality. New AI technologies have raised all kinds of questions about human creativity, and the various monsters we must vanquish in order to preserve it. We’ll get into all that and more in our panel discussion of AI, Creativity and the Public Domain.</p> <h2><a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weird-tales-from-the-public-domainfreeing-culture-from-corporate-captivity-tickets-772473157007">REGISTER NOW</a></h2> <p>This event is co-hosted by <a href="https://archive.org/">Internet Archive</a>, Creative Commons, <a href="https://www.authorsalliance.org/">Authors Alliance</a>, <a href="https://publicknowledge.org/">Public Knowledge</a>, <a href="https://www.libraryfutures.net/">Library Futures</a>, <a href="https://sparcopen.org/">SPARC</a> and the <a href="https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/">Duke Center for the Study of the Public Domain</a>.</p> <p> </p>  <span class="pub-date">Posted 20 December 2023</span> <article class="tags"> <h2>Tags</h2> <ul> <li><a href="https://creativecommons.org/tag/copyright/">copyright</a></li> <li><a href="https://creativecommons.org/tag/generative-ai/">Generative AI</a></li> <li><a href="https://creativecommons.org/tag/mickey-mouse/">mickey mouse</a></li> <li><a href="https://creativecommons.org/tag/public-domain/">public domain</a></li> <li><a href="https://creativecommons.org/tag/public-domain-day/">Public Domain Day</a></li> </ul> </article> <article class="related-posts"> <h2>Related posts</h2> <article class="authored-posts highlight"> <article> <header> <h2><a href="https://creativecommons.org/2024/04/23/cc-at-wipo-slow-progress-on-copyright-exceptions-for-cultural-heritage-institutions/">CC at WIPO: Slow progress on copyright exceptions for cultural heritage institutions</a></h2> <span class="byline">by <a href="https://creativecommons.org/person/brigittevezina/">Brigitte Vézina</a> </span> <span class="categories"> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/category/policy/copyright/" rel="category tag">Copyright</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/category/open-culture/" rel="category tag">Open Culture</a> </span> </header> </article> <article> <header> <h2><a href="https://creativecommons.org/2024/03/14/eu-adopts-landmark-artificial-intelligence-act/">EU adopts landmark Artificial Intelligence Act</a></h2> <span class="byline">by <a href="https://creativecommons.org/person/brigittevezina/">Brigitte Vézina</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/person/mark-foster/">Mark Foster</a> </span> <span class="categories"> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/category/policy/copyright/" rel="category tag">Copyright</a> </span> </header> </article> <article> <header> <h2><a href="https://creativecommons.org/2024/02/12/cc-supports-a-new-digital-knowledge-act-for-europe/">CC Supports a new Digital Knowledge Act for Europe</a></h2> <span class="byline">by <a href="https://creativecommons.org/person/brigittevezina/">Brigitte Vézina</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/person/monicacreativecommons-org/">Monica Granados</a> </span> <span class="categories"> <a href="https://creativecommons.org/category/policy/copyright/" rel="category tag">Copyright</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/category/open-knowledge/open-access/" rel="category tag">Open Access</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/category/open-knowledge/open-data/" rel="category tag">Open Data</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/category/open-knowledge/" rel="category tag">Open Knowledge</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/category/open-knowledge/open-science/" rel="category tag">Open Science</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/category/policy/" rel="category tag">Policy</a> </span> </header> </article> <article> <header> <h2><a href="https://creativecommons.org/2023/11/09/cc-key-insights-wipo-meeting-on-copyright/">CC’s Key Insights from WIPO’s Meeting on Copyright</a></h2> <span class="byline">by <a href="https://creativecommons.org/person/brigittevezina/">Brigitte Vézina</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/person/catherine/">Catherine Stihler</a> </span> <span class="categories"> <a 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