Summary
As of 2025, works from 1929, including early versions of Popeye and Tintin, have entered the public domain in the U.S., allowing free reuse and adaptation.
Iconic works now public include The Skeleton Dance (Disney’s Silly Symphonies), Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail, William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials Mystery, and Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own.
However, Tintin remains under copyright in the EU until 2054.
This follows recent public domain entries like Steamboat Willie-era Mickey Mouse in 2024, with Betty Boop and Pluto set to join in 2026.
You must log in or register to comment.
Is that why Popeye the Slayer Man got made?
This sort of thing is fine.
But I’m more interested in uses where the goal isn’t just to insert a bunch of horror/slasher violence.
Have I overlooked any?
I suppose the theme song is quite a while out?
Its only the first few strips that are public domain according to the guy currently drawing new popeye strips
🎵 I’m Popeye the sailor man! 🎶
🎵 I live in a garbage can! 🎶
🎵 I move really fast, 🎶
🎵 And blast off my ass! 🎶
🎵 I’m Popeye the sailor man! 🎶I thought it was “I turned on the gas and blew up my ass.”?
Disney will prolong steamboat Willy as they have been doing with their other works for decades
We even have a trailer for a Popeye horror movie in the same vein as Blood and Honey.
Oh boy who could have predicted?
Finally, you can make the skeletons dance to whatever you want! and play it in the background of your low budget Halloween horror movies
But both almost certainly trademarked. Trademarks must be defended, but as long as they are, they do not expire.
It’s ok…I am only training my AI model on their data, it’s not theft or whatever…it’s just training ai
I wonder how a legal case about AI violating trademark would go since that’s a totally different set of laws…
Trademarks are probably easier to filter out matches than copyrighted works, due to the relatively few number of them and restrictiveness of trademark protections.
True, but the use case of a trademark is also different. Simply titling your work Popeye and featuring a spinach-less Popeye as a main character should be fine (spinach as a super-serum is a still a few years away from entering the public domain). You wouldn’t want to do something like name your studio after him or try to use him for a brand of cereal or something, but even Disney has had to be careful not to go overboard with Steamboat Willie derivative works despite obviously putting him on the Disney Animation title-card to get some trademark protection. Basically, it will be hard to fully commercialize these characters if you aren’t already the one legally entitled to do so, but creators can use the public domain versions even if the trademarks are still actively in use.
A trademark is just a symbol used to show something was made by a certain entity. They aren’t about the things themselves.
Eg the Nintendo logo is a trademark but the characters like Mario, Link, and Sonic aren’t.
Though it can get a bit fuzzy when characters are used as trademarks, Nintendo couldn’t just say “Mario is our spokesman” to gain indefinite protection on him. But, even if Mario wasn’t covered by copyright, someone else couldn’t use him to act as if Nintendo endorsed their product.
Sounds like Nintendo might disagree with you…
Especially when a character is a form of logo.
However, Tintin remains under copyright in the EU until 2054.
What the fuck, EU? Since when you’re shittier than the US?
Copyright shouldn’t last more than one hundred years, ffs.
