After Nearly a Century, 1930’s Creative Works & Characters Receive Public Domain Diploma, Set Free for Public Use

As Public Domain Day approaches, Re:Create highlights the creative works and characters first published in 1930 and set to enter the public domain. On January 1, 2026, these characters will receive their public domain diploma, gaining independence from rightsholders after nearly a century, and opening the door for anyone to freely copy, share, and build upon them.

The public domain will now be enriched by the earliest appearances of some beloved characters, including a superstar detective trio that someone has got to team up. We’ll get Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple thanks to her debut in Agatha Christie’s The Murder at the Vicarage, the precocious Nancy Drew from her 1930 debut in The Secret of the Old Clock, the original “hard boiled” detective Sam Spade in Dashiell Hammett’s 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon, and if they need a femme fatale, we’ll get the iconic flapper Betty Boop as initially portrayed in a 1930 cartoon called “Dizzy Dishes,” to name just a few.

As AI tools lower the technical barriers of creating new works with old characters, a growing roster of public domain characters has never been more important. Creators should know, however, that new creative elements added to a character as they evolve over time enter the public domain along with the works embodying those elements. For example, 2026 public domain Betty Boop is a dog with floppy ears from 1930’s “Dizzy Dishes”; she doesn’t morph into the familiar human form we all know and love (complete with “Boop Oop a Doop” catchphrase) until 1932. And the iconic portrayal of Sam Spade by Humphrey Bogart won’t enter the public domain until the 1941 film version sheds its copyrights in 2037. To learn more, check out Jennifer Jenkins and James Boyle’s detailed writeup on character copyrights and the public domain.

Below is more information on public domain requirements and how characters’ graduation into the public domain fosters creativity and innovation.

When Might Works Enter the Public Domain? It depends…

95 years after first publication (for works published before 1978)
70 years after the death of their author (for unpublished works and post-’78 publications)
120 years after their creation (for unpublished anonymous works and works-for-hire)
Immediately, if dedicated to the public by the creator, e.g. using a CC-0 license
Immediately, if created by a U.S. government employee as part of their work

Legacies, Creativity & Innovation Unlocked

Following these characters’ “graduation” into the public domain, they become freely available for anyone to copy, share, and reuse; allowing the original works’ legacies to live on through modern reinterpretations. The public domain empowers creativity and innovation in the U.S. by allowing new creators to…

Rewrite the end of a classic storyline
Develop a new persona and new adventures for iconic characters
Add a new scene to a classic work
Re-cast classic stories with elements of genre and style that embody a new aesthetic

Future Classes of the Public Domain Deserve Early Graduation

The precocious sleuth Nancy Drew finished high school at 16, but it took almost a century for her character to serve out its copyright term and graduate into the public domain. This is absurd. Re:Create continues to advocate for shortening the copyright term. Its more-than-a-century duration is economically indefensible and fails to strike an appropriate balance between incentivizing creation and replenishing the public domain. At the country’s founding, copyright terms were much shorter – 14 years, renewable once for 14 more years if the author was still alive at the end of the initial term – and empirical evidence suggests that today’s extended term robs the public of access to works without increasing the incentive for new creation. A shorter term would better serve the public and unleash the full power of U.S. creative and innovative industries by allowing more works to enter the public domain sooner.