Next year, not a single US copyright for a published work will expire. In fact, after two extensions in the 1970s and 1990s, virtually nothing will enter the public domain until 2019, and even that is assuming there aren’t any future changes in store. Instead, Duke University has pulled together a list of the most notable works that, under pre-1978 law, could have become free for public consumption, distribution, and adaptation on January 1st, 2014: Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, and The Cat in the Hat to name a few. The arguably bigger problem, though, involves books, films, and music that most people have never heard of, and that copyright holders aren’t going to bother preserving or reissuing — without a meaningful public domain, they can’t be archived in a way that makes them available to more than a privileged few.
Here’s what could have entered the public domain in 2014
is a senior tech and policy editor focused on online platforms and free expression. Adi has covered virtual and augmented reality, the history of computing, and more for The Verge since 2011.
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