A new year means new works entering the public domain – which means a new Public Domain Game Jam!
There are tons of great works from 1927 that are now free to remix. Come join @mmasnick@mastodon.social Leigh Beadon and me for 'Gaming Like It's 1927' to celebrate: https://itch.io/jam/gaming-like-its-1927
Works entering the public domain include:
Written work by: Agatha Christie, Baroness Orczy, Hermann Hesse, Marcel Proust, Upton Sinclair, and Virginia Woolf
Art by: Ansel Adams, Edward Hopper, Georgia O'Keeffe, René Magritte, Salvador Dalí, and Tamara de Lempicka
Films including The Jazz Singer, Metropolis, Napoléon, and Trolley Troubles
Music by Béla Bartók, Ira and George Gershwin, Igor Stravinsky, Irving Berlin, Louis Armstrong, Ruth Etting, and Sophie Tucker
Check out Duke's round up for many more works that are now free to remix: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/
Once again, the link to the jam is: https://itch.io/jam/gaming-like-its-1927
You have until the end of January to submit – looking forward to seeing what you design!
@randylubin It's good to see works actually entering the public domain.
I think it's like one of those logjams. And now it's broken open ...
@randylubin Hasn't *everything* by Bartók been in the Public Domain since 2016 (70 years pma)?
@hydrarchos @randylubin not in the US, because we didn't join the Berne Convention until the early 1990's, and the copyrights of non-US works were grandfathered thanks to the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (or URAA for short).
@hydrarchos @randylubin I'm sorry if I'm not clear; US © law is labyrinthine.
@hydrarchos @randylubin Also, before 1978 in the US, © was "opt-in" or every work published would be public domain unless you copyrighted it with formalities. After 1978, works would be "opt-out" meaning works would be ©'d once they're fixed in a tangible form.
Also, in the US, you could opt for a second 23-year © term after a first 23-year © term. After a bunch of laws in the 1980's, it would be one long © term.
@randylubin I hope there’s Sherlock Holmes games incoming too!
@Trailanderror @randylubin ooh! There’s so much that can be done in this sphere!
@randylubin did you know I've always wanted to make an In Search of Lost Time scenario?
I guess I now have no excuses not to.
@randylubin @mcc huh, for some reason I thought Metropolis was already public domain. Maybe something about German copyright law?
@randylubin
On the plus side: This is awesome!
On the downside: Maybe Guy Ritchie will murder Agatha Christie's work now.
@randylubin
"Thanks" to the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement, Canadian copyright now (starting today) aligns with US at 70 years after author's death, up from 50.