Popeye and Tintin will soon lose copyright protection
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A still from an unidentified Popeye film, c. 1945. Image: Paramount Pictures, courtesy of Getty Images
The original Popeye and Tintin characters will enter the public domain when their copyright expires next week, along with thousands of other comics, books, songs and films.
Why it matters: Any creator will have the legal right to use the iconic characters in new works as they see fit from New Year's Day, as long as it's the 95-year-old comic strip versions. Filmmakers are already working on three Popeye horror movies.
The big picture: In addition to copyrighted works from 1929 entering the U.S. public domain, Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke's Center for the Study of the Public Domain, writes that intellectual property protection will also expire on sound recordings from 1924 on Jan. 1, 2025.
- That applies to "The Karnival Kid," in which Mickey Mouse speaks for the first time. Copyrights on the original versions of Mickey and Minnie Mouse in the silent film "Steamboat Willie" expired this year.
- Mickey debuts his familiar white gloves and speaks his first words in "The Karnival Kid," "Hot dogs! Hot dogs!" Jenkins notes in her online post.
What else we're watching: The Marx Brothers' first feature film will enter the public domain, as will Alfred Hitchcock's first sound movie, "Blackmail."
- In song, the copyrights will lift on George Gershwin's "An American in Paris" and Arthur Freed's "Singin' in the Rain."
- Books to enter the public domain will include Ernest Hemingway's "A Farewell to Arms" and Virginia Woolf's "A Room of One's Own."
Fun fact: The character Buck Rogers "first appeared in 1929 and is public domain in 2025, but technically the futuristic space hero has already been copyright-free for decades, despite claims that he was still copyrighted," Jenkins writes.
- "This is because the copyright registration for the Buck Rogers comic strip was not renewed, so that its copyright expired after 28 years. Also, the original version of the character was actually introduced in a novella as 'Anthony Rogers' in 1928; that character has long been public domain as well."
Go deeper: Mickey and Minnie Mouse lose copyright protection
