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Public Domain Advent Calendar
Take a peek each day between now and December 29 to see what works enter the public domain in 2026 The Public Domain Review has combed through the history books to find some gems in the crop of works entering the public domain as of January 1, 2026. Sonny Bono may have won the round but Steamboat Willie is out of the bag now. Who's next?
posted by tafetta, darling! on Dec 04, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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Miss Marple and Nancy Drew will be entering the public domain together, which sounds like an inspiring pairing.
posted by cheshyre at 6:07 PM
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The case of the ergot lined pocket.
posted by clavdivs at 6:11 PM
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Oh, yay!
I love the Public Domain Review - and also the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University.
Sadly, neither seems to have catered to my personal specific interest yet this year - music, and particularly the Great American Songbook.
Last year, we got:
* (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue
* A Ship Without a Sail
* Ain't Misbehavin'
* Am I Blue?
* An American in Paris
* Basin Street Blues
* Boléro
* Can't We Be Friends?
* Glad Rag Doll
* Happy Days Are Here Again
* Honey
* Honeysuckle Rose
* I Guess I'll Have to Change My Plan
* More Than You Know
* Pagan Love Song
* Rockin' Chair
* She's (He's) Funny That Way
* Singin' in the Rain
* Tiptoe Through the Tulips
* Waiting for a Train
* What Is This Thing Called Love?
* Without a Song
* You Do Something to Me
* You Were Meant for Me
Going by the years on the Wikipedia Great American Songbook page, in 2026, we'll get:
* Beyond the Blue Horizon
* Bidin' My Time
* Body and Soul
* But Not for Me
* Dancing on the Ceiling
* Exactly Like You
* Georgia on My Mind
* Get Happy
* Happy Days Are Here Again
* I Got Rhythm
* I've Got a Crush on You
* Lazy River
* Little White Lies
* Love for Sale
* Memories of You
* Mood Indigo
* My Baby Just Cares for Me
* On the Sunny Side of the Street
* Puttin' on the Ritz
* Spring Is Here
* Three Little Words
* Time on My Hands
* With a Song in My Heart
* Would You Like to Take a Walk?
* You're Driving Me Crazy
Someday, I want to make a bunch of recordings of those public domain songs, just for fun, just to share with other folks.
Maybe 2026 will be the year.
Thank you so much for this, tafetta, darling! Public Domain Day is one of my favorite things (well, and the public domain itself is really one of my very favorite things), and it's great fun to have the countdown.
posted by kristi at 6:13 PM
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This is good, thanks for posting. I'd like to read Nan Shepherd's The Weatherhouse.
posted by paduasoy at 6:26 PM
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Public Domain Advent Calendar
Ok, but who wants to eat public domain chocolate??
particularly the Great American Songbook
Historically, jazz composers and musicians got around the copyright issue by using part or all of the chord progression of those songs (which isn't copyrightable) but replacing the melody (which is) with a new one they've made up.
(Having written that out, it occurrs to me that this is probably already widely-known, but...Just In Case...)
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:58 PM
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Ooh, Greg_Ace - thank you! I knew (a bit) about the practice but didn't know the term (contrafacts) or that there was a list at Wikipedia!
So cool. Thanks!
posted by kristi at 7:20 PM
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You're very welcome!
Bonus Fun Fact: The chords of "I Got Rhythm" are so fun to improvise over that they got used for a ton of jazz contrafacts (as is obvious in that list). In fact during a jam session you can just say something like "Rhythm Changes in E♭" and everybody knows exactly what to do.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:35 PM
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Oh damn Body and Soul, one of the all time greats!
posted by Television Name at 1:46 AM
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