I think I’m going to need to expand my list of usual suspects for 2026, because there’s two more public domain pieces I want to share beyond the resources shared yesterday.
First is an article, with plenty of audiovisual samples, by Ellen Wexler for Smithsonian Magazine. As you might imagine, the Smithsonian is very into collections, culture, and curating. Here, Wexler relies in part on Jennifer Jenkins, and the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, but she has some nice summaries of copyright and trademark and how this means you can’t sing Popeye’s signature song with I.P. impunity for a few more years.
If you want a break from all this reading, Steve Shives has a 20-minute rundown of this year’s public domain offerings. Just be ready for some singing because why not?