Carnival of Soul

As we ring in 2020, a new batch of books, sheet music, art and films have entered the public domain.

Hundreds of copyright protections for artists who died in 1924 are now free to use or repurpose in the public domain under U.S. law.

Here are some top highlights of this year’s batch in the public domain.

Music Compositions

• “It Had to Be You”
• “Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin
• “Lazy” by Irving Berlin
• “Jealous Hearted Blues” by Cora “Lovie” Austin
• “Nobody’s Sweetheart.” music by Billy Meyers and Elmer Schoebel, lyrics by Gus Kahn and Ernie Erdman
• “California, Here I Come” by Al Jolson

• “Peter Pan” the first film adaptation of the book by James Matthew Barrie
• Buster Keaton’s “Sherlock, Jr.” and “The Navigator”
• Harold Lloyd’s “Girl Shy” and “Hot Water”
• The 1924 film adaptation of “Dante’s Inferno”

Literature

• “The Box-Car Children,” first book in the series by Gertrude Chandler Warner
• “The Dream” by H. G. Wells
• “The Man in the Brown Suit” by Agatha Christie
• “When We Were Very Young” by A. A. Milne
• “Old New York novellas” by Edith Wharton
• “Tarzan and the Ant Men” by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• “Billy Budd” by Herman Melville

The full Catalog of Copyright entries from the Library of Congress can be seen here.