Tintin, Popeye, Hemingway, Ravel lose their copyrights in the United States

Rosenfeld/AFP

The universal stars of comics Tintin and Popeye, masterpieces of literature, cinema and music by Faulkner, Hemingway, Hitchcock, Ravel – all dated 1929 – fall into the American public domain on Wednesday. 

Every January 1st, thousands of books, films, songs, music, works of art, and comic strip characters, 95 years old, lose their copyright in the United States. 

This means that they can be freely copied, shared, reproduced or adapted without a cent being paid. 

It is the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University Law School in North Carolina (southeast), which publishes each end of December the list of cultural works that have passed into the posterity. 

This January 1st, the stars are the sailor Popeye, created in 1929 by the American Elzie Crisler Segar, and the reporter Tintin, presented by the Belgian Hergé the same year. 

“In recent years, we have celebrated the entry into the public domain of fascinating characters such as Mickey Mouse (2024) and Winnie the Pooh (2022),” recalls the Center's director, Jennifer Jenkins, on her website. “In 2025, copyrights expire for more incarnations of Mickey Mouse dating back to 1929 and early versions of Popeye and Tintin,” the lawyer says. 

The year 2029 was also the year of major works of American and European literature, adapted several times for the cinema. 

“The Sound and the Fury” by William Faulkner, “A Farewell to Arms” by Ernest Hemingway, “A Room of One's Own” by the British author Virginia Woolf, or the first English translation of “All Quiet on the Western Front” by the German author Erich Maria Remarque. 

These legendary novels also fall into the American public domain on Wednesday. 

On the film side, Duke University is highlighting “Blackmail” by Alfred Hitchcock, the first British talking film, and “The Black Guard” by the American author John Ford, both released in 1929. 

In song and music, the first version of “Singin' in the Rain” by the Americans Ignacio Herbert Brown and Arthur Freed, adapted many times, also loses its copyright. 

Just like the famous “Bolero” by the Frenchman Maurice Ravel, composed in 1928 but whose “copyright” dates from the following year. 

You liked the article ? It mobilized our editorial staff which lives only on your donations.
Information has a cost, especially since the competition from subsidized editorial staff requires an increase in rigor and professionalism.

With your support, France-Soir will continue to offer its articles for free  because we believe that everyone should have access to free and independent information to form their own opinion.

You are the sine qua non condition for our existence, support us so that France-Soir remains the French media that allows the most legitimate people to express themselves.