Here’s What’s Entering the Public Domain in 2026

From films featuring the Marx brothers and early Betty Boop, to a Faulkner classic, and "Body and Soul," these artistic works are free game on January 1.

Every January 1, pop culture quietly resets in the U.S. Old books, films, TV shows, photos, comic strips, songs, and more lose their copyright protection and enter the public domain, transforming from guarded intellectual property into raw material anyone can use. 

For many filmmakers, publishers, programmers, and archivists, Public Domain Day is one of the most consequential dates on the creative calendar. Because U.S. copyrights don’t expire on a rolling basis, the switch flips all at once, releasing a flood of newly adaptable and shareable material simultaneously. And gone is the need to get permission to use the work, along with constraints like licensing fees and usage restrictions. 

Most source materials enter the public domain 95 years after their initial publication, which means that, at midnight on January 1, 2026, intellectual property from throughout 1930 will become fair game. That includes Disney’s “The Chain Gang” short with Mickey Mouse and the Marx Brothers‘ “Animal Crackers,” among other notable additions. Because anyone can reprint, adapt, quote, restore, or otherwise remix these archival works into something novel, we can expect the usual annual wave of new material in a variety of mediums.

Last January, 1929’s “Steamboat Willie” joined the public domain and inspired multiple indie slashers within a matter of months. That same treatment is already in progress for new public domain recruit Betty Boop, who is soon to be an onscreen serial killer thanks to her intro in 1930’s “Dizzy Dishes.” Though, Betty’s copyright owner does seem to be putting up a fight, given she’s a half-woman, half-poodle hybrid caricature in that.

Of course, low-budget horror isn’t the only cinematic genre interested in the public domain right now. Economic pressures reshaping Hollywood have made copyright-free material newly attractive to prestige players looking for name recognition of all kinds, with auteurs frequently treating source works as creative and historical scaffolding. And lesser-known and amateur filmmakers also benefit from the yearly dump of inspirational work.

To mark Public Domain Day 2026, the Internet Archive is hosting a short film remix contest, inviting filmmakers and artists of all skill levels to create two- to three-minute originals using the freshly available materials from 1930. Submissions are due January 7, 2026, with selected films premiering on the Archive’s site and screening during its Public Domain Day celebrations later that month. Cash prizes will be awarded to standout entries in an effort to reinforce the public domain’s role as a living creative commons — one that invites reuse, reinterpretation, and hands-on engagement with pop culture history.

The main thing that will change about the public domain over time is the tone of what’s becoming available. As we move away from early-20th-century texts, we’re progressively seeing more modern novels, early sound films, jazz standards, and stories with an otherwise contemporary perspective or attitude.

On the literary side in 2026, William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” will enter the public domain, opening the door for adaptations of one of America’s most enduring novels. So too will Dashiell Hammett’s detective novel “The Maltese Falcon” (different from the famous 1941 Humphrey Bogart film); the four earliest “Nancy Drew Mystery Stories,” all of which were published in 1930; and children’s books from Watty Piper’s “The Little Engine That Could” to William S. Gray’s “Dick and Jane.” In nonfiction, there’s writings from Sigmund Freud, Winston Churchill, William Empson, and more. 

In cinema, Lewis Milestone’s landmark anti-war film “All Quiet on the Western Front,” which was based on the novel adapted with Oscar-winning success by Edward Berger in 2022, will join the public domain. A broader wave of early sound features — including Greta Garbo’s first talkie, “Anna Christie,” and “The Big Trail,” which offered John Wayne his first lead role — will soon become easier to screen and dissect. And we’ll have new access to Laurel and Hardy’s “Another Fine Mess” and Jack Conway’s “The Unholy Three,” the only sound film in which iconic creature performer Lon Chaney ever spoke. 

Copyright protections work a little differently for music. Sound recordings in the U.S. enter the public domain 100 years after publication, while the underlying compositions follow the 95-year rule. That means that in 2026, creators will gain freer access to classic 1930 songs, including standards like “I Got Rhythm” and “Body and Soul,” even as many contemporaneous recordings remain protected.

As always, special trademarks and protections to later adaptations and revisions still apply. Only the original versions of works are truly free beginning January 1, but you can still count on the public domain to grow larger, stranger, and more accessible come this new year. 

Learn more about what’s becoming available on Public Domain Day 2026 at Copyright Lately (by Aaron Moss), or enter the Internet Archive’s 2026 Public Domain Film Remix Contest.