Every year on January 1st, culture liberates itself a little more. It is the moment in which some of the works that have written the history of art, literature, music and cinema officially enter the public domain. And that is precisely what is happening today, in 2025, with a cultural treasure from 1929 that now becomes everyone’s.
Among the protagonists of this revolution we find names and works that have marked eras and influenced generations: Tintinthe most famous Belgian reporter in the world, Popeyethe sailor who lives on spinach and irony, the novels of Hemingway And Faulknerthe first sound experiments of Hitchcock and the musical magic of Ravel’s Bolero. For all of them, the time of copyright protection is officially over.
In the United States, copyright laws provide that after 95 years old upon publication, creative works lose legal copyright protection. This means that books, films, songs and even comic book characters can be used, copied, shared and even adapted without asking permission or paying any royalties.
THE’list of works that enter the public domain is published promptly at the end of December by Center for the Study of the Public Domain from Duke University, North Carolina. And this year, the stars of 1929 join this tradition. There are among them Popeye (Popeye), created by the American Elzie Crisler Segar, and Tintinborn from the pencil and imagination of Hergé, pseudonym of the Belgian artist Georges Remi.
Jennifer Jenkins, director of the Center, celebrates this transition by defining 2025 as a year that adds a new chapter to the “cultural liberation movement”. “In recent years – he explains – we have celebrated the arrival in the public domain of characters such as Mickey Mouse (2024) and Winnie the Pooh (2022). Now it’s the turn of the first versions of Tintin and Popeye, symbols of an era and still beloved after almost a century.”
Literary, cinematographic and musical masterpieces: 1929 to be rediscovered
In addition to comic book characters, 1929 gave us some of the most significant works of American and European literature. Among these stand out “The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner, a cornerstone of modernism, and the famous autobiographical novel by Ernest Hemingway “A Farewell to Arms”inspired by his experience during the First World War.
But not only that: Virginia Woolf’s revolutionary essay also enters the public domain “A room of one’s own”a manifesto for women’s independence, and the first English translation of “All Quiet on the Western Front” by the German Erich Maria Remarque, who recounted the horrors of war with crudeness and sensitivity.
The cinema of 1929 also enters the scene. Among the top titles we find “Blackmail”the first sound film by the brilliant Alfred Hitchcock, and “The Black Watch” by John Ford, milestones that mark the evolution of cinematographic language.
And how can we not mention the music? Two extraordinary songs from 1929 enter the public domain: the first version of the legendary “Singin’ in the Rain”written by Ignacio Herbert Brown and Arthur Freed, and the majestic “Bolero” by Maurice Ravel, one of the most famous symphonic pieces ever, which has enchanted concert halls around the world since 1928.
The value of the public domain
When a work enters the public domainit is not just a bureaucratic deadline, but a symbolic moment of openness and sharing. Without the legal barriers of copyright, these masterpieces can be reinterpreted, transformed and made accessible in ways that were previously impossible. It is an opportunity for scholars, creatives and enthusiasts of all ages to discover – or rediscover – the timeless beauty of these works, with the freedom to imagine them in completely new contexts.
And so, from reporter Tintin al sailor Popeyefrom the tormented world of Hemingway to the enchanted symphony of Ravel2025 reminds us of a fundamental thing: culture belongs to everyone.
