Movies & Characters Entering The Public Domain Will Make Hollywood’s IP Problem Worse

Starting with Steamboat Willie, more classic movies and characters entering the public domain will make Hollywood’s IP problem even worse. Over the last few years, decades-long copyrights have finally expired, ushering well-known, money-making titles into the public domain. For a while, the trend zeroed in on books making the big leap to fair-use territory. In 2021, for example, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s enduring novel The Great Gatsby, which was first published in 1925, entered the public domain for the first time in its 95-year history. Pretty immediately, creatives seized on the opportunity to publish Gatsby sequels, spin-offs, and re-imaginings.