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A character that nobody owns anymore, or was never owned in the first place, that everybody wants to take a shot at writing.
Under U.S. law, works first published in 1922 or earlier are no longer subject to copyright. Before the 1970s, copyright was not automatic in the United States and most other countries, and it was possible for a copyright to lapse if not registered or renewed in a timely manner, so certain later works are public domain as well. In Europe, the rule is that the author has to have been dead for 70 years. Under the Berne Convention, work-for-hire has a copyright term of 100 years from the date of publication. Additionally, the holder of a copyright may choose to release it prematurely into the public domain.
Thanks to the trend of various changes in legislation, copyright terms can sometimes be cynically described as lasting at least X years, where X is the number of years since the release of Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon. (This is not strictly correct as it was actually the third Mickey Mouse cartoon, but it was the first talkie and the first to be widely released.) It is generally agreed that the most recent extension of American copyright duration — the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act — was enacted at the behest of the Walt Disney Company solely to keep Mickey Mouse cartoons from entering the public domain.
Given Congress' willingness to extend copyright duration any time Hollywood demands it, it is entirely possible that — in America at least — the pool of public domain characters has reached its maximum size and will grow no larger, except by accident or oversight.
A distinction should be made between Public Domain characters and Public Domain works; Bugs Bunny is a trademarked character and not in public domain, but his earliest individual cartoons are.
One interesting side-note to keep in mind is that there is a difference between copyright (the legal right to control the reproduction of a particular expression of an idea or concept) and trademark (a symbol, character or design which is intended to be emblematic of a particular product or organization and used to identify them in a kind of visual shorthand). Public domain generally deals with copyright alone — meaning that it might be possible for someone to legally write a story with a public domain character, only to find they cannot legally sell their story using that character's name, because someone else holds the trademark. This has happened.
Of course, even if a character isn't in the Public Domain, a good writer can probably find a way to get that character in by creating a Captain Ersatz or a Alternate Company Equivalent, or by utilizing a Lawyer Friendly Cameo. And if that writer can't even use a character he created thanks to the wonders of modern copyright law, then he can use an Expy. Sometimes, they can just graft that character onto a Historical Domain Character (see below). Of course, sometimes all this can just go too far.
Compare Historical Domain Character, which are people from Real Life.
Examples
- Count Dracula.
- His use as such lampshaded in Dr McNinja's Alt Text recently: "Thank God for the public domain."
- Frankenstein's Monster
- Characters from ancient Greek and Roman mythology and literature, such as Hercules, Achilles, Odysseus, Oedipus, Orpheus, as well as the various gods and goddesses. Norse Mythology is also used as a background for many stories, but less often than Greek and Roman myths.
- God. In fact, pretty much all figures from religions that were founded before the 20th century. Still would probably be a bad idea to say that God looks shockingly like Morgan Freeman, or George Burns. Others include:
- The Grim Reaper
- Robin Hood
- Santa Claus, unless You Mean Xmas
- King Arthur (and the Knights of the Round Table)
- Dorian Gray
- The characters of Mark Twain (who himself did this with King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table!)
- William Shakespeare's characters.
- Sherlock Holmes, except for a few stories near the end. Dr. Watson, too, or we'd have had lawsuits by now.
- The first five books of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars series, where John Carter Of Mars appeared, were published before 1923 and are out of copyright in the USA.
- Likewise, the first eight books of Burroughs' most famous creation, Tarzan, are public domain in the United States; however, Disney has tried to claim trademark rights, at least in Denmark. The Burroughs corporation beat them to it.
- The Wizard Of Oz and associated characters, as long as only material from the first 16 books (published in 1922 or earlier) is used. (Thankfully, this includes all the Baum books.) The famous ruby slippers date from the 1939 movie and thus have to be licensed (the originals in the books are silver).
- Several of HP Lovecraft's characters, including Herbert West and Randolph Carter. Additionally, Lovecraft actually encouraged other writers to use the Cthulhu Mythos in over works, thus making the mythos in general, and such characters as Cthulhu, Dagon and Yog-Sothoth are essentially in the public domain. (Only Nyarlathotep is undeniably public domain in the United States.)
- Some research has suggested that later Lovecraft stories, produced during the time when copyright had to be renewed, were not renewed, making more characters out of copyright; this hasn't yet been tested in court. Wikipedia has some information here.
- Additionally, all of Lovecraft's works became public domain in the European Union on January 1, 2008.
- Note that Dagon is actually a Philistine fish-god; you can find him mentioned in The Bible. However, the details specific to the Lovecraft version would fall under the same copyright status as the story in which he appeared.
- Which is still definitely out of copyright in the US (and most countries), since it was published in 1919.
- The Phantom Of The Opera, as well as the two other sides of his love triangle.
- Conan The Barbarian is public domain in the United Kingdom since 2006 (70 years after Howard's death), but his status in some other countries remains in dispute.
- Mowgli and other characters from Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.
- Long John Silver and associates.
- Robinson Crusoe
- Zorro should be public domain, since his first story was 1919 and he appeared in a silent film in 1920, but in 2005 Sony sent a cease-and-desist to a company, Sobini, which wanted to make a Zorro movie. Sobini sued Sony in 2005 to try to get a decision that Sobini could use the character, but the outcome of this suit, if any, remains unreported. What news can be found is confusing and contradictory (such as news articles claiming that Sobini "acquired the rights" to the public domain 1919 story).
- It's possible Sony holds trademark on the name Zorro, which would mean Sobini would be legally allowed to make a Zorro movie, but not refer to it as "Zorro" in any way in the title of the movie, or in the advertising. If this is the case, a lawsuit by Sony may actually be one involving trademark and "brand confusion in the marketplace", essentially claiming that a Zorro movie made by anyone else would harm their own trademark. Conversely, this may simply be a case of a huge corporation resorting to scare tactics, intimidation, and the threat of legal harassment to force an out-of-court settlement (which would almost certainly involve Sony getting a percentage of any profits such a movie generated).
- Many Golden Age comic book characters wound up falling into public domain because their original publishers either went out of business or failed to renew the copyrights. Most Fawcett Comics and Quality Comics characters fall into the latter category. With Quality Comics, DC Comics acquired the characters while they were still under copyright, but they allowed the characters that they weren't using to enter the public domain. Fawcett Comics licensed its characters to DC until it went out of business in 1980s and DC bought them outright, but, once again, it didn't renew copyrights for anyone but Captain Marvel and his supporting cast. A number of public domain characters were subsequently reused by more recent publishers:
- In the 1980s, Eclipse Comics revived Airboy, a Hillman Comics character. The title's supporting cast and villains were often borrowed from Air Fighters Comics, a title Airboy originally appeared in.
- Also in the 1980s, ACE Comics briefly revived Columbia Comic superheroes Skyman and the Face. The company also reprinted several Golden Age comics from various publishers. The company went bankrupt before their revival could get beyond the initial mini-series.
- In the early 1990s, Malibu Comics used Centaur Comics characters as the basis for "Protectors Universe," their first superhero line (not the be confused with Ultraverse, the superhero line that replaced it).
- In 1994, Roy Thomas used several public domain characters from several defunct comic companies in the Invaders mini-series, casting the characters as heroes who underwent a Face Heel Turn. He originally intended to use obscure Marvel Comics Golden Age characters, but he was overruled by his editor. One of those characters (Dr Nemesis) went on to play a supporting role in Uncanny X-Men.
- In the early 2000s, Alan Moore revived Nedor Comics characters in the Tom Strong series. They were later used in two Terra Obscura mini-series.
- Dynamite Entertainment has also used the Nedor Comics characters, in the pages of Project Superpowers.
- AC Comics made a habit of using public domain characters both in new series and reprints of original stories. Unlike the previous examples, which focused on a specific company, AC Comics used any character that was available, including minor Fawcett and Quality characters.
- Oddly, Dynamic Man used in The Twelve is not a public domain character — he is owned by Marvel. However, he served as the basis for Harry "A" Chesler's version of Dynamic Man, which appeared in Project Superpowers. The later version had many similarities to the former, but several minor details (such as their respective civilian identities) were different enough to make them distinct.
- At around the same time as Project Superpowers, Image Comics started the Next Issue Project. Unlike most of the above-mentioned projects, which updated the characters for modern sensibilities, the Next Issue Project is more of a Retraux Affectionate Parody, with Golden Age-style stories, issues the size of Golden Age comics rather than modern comics, and even vintage ads.
- Many of the Nedor characters ar also being used in Heroes, inc a webcomic created by Scott Austin. The story takes place in an alternate reality where the allies of WWII lost te war. The Nedor character American Crusader is an aging hero collecting DNA from various etire heroe in an attempt to revive the Golden Age. Many changes have been made to the characters origin stories and appearance.
- The original version of Blue Beetle (created for Fox Features Syndicate) is public domain, but subsequent Charlton Comics (and, later DC Comics') revamps are not — they all belong to DC Comics. Furthermore, DC Comics owns the Blue Beetle trademark, which is why AC Comics and Dynamite Entertainment changed their versions' name to avoid litigation.
- Centaur's John Aman, AKA Amazing-Man, recently joined the supporting cast of Marvel's Immortal Iron Fist as The Prince of Orphans, which is fitting since, according to Roy Thomas, Iron Fist's co-creator, Iron Fist was based on the Amazing Man.
- The first two Agatha Christie books, including her famous character Hercule Poirot.
- The comic-book superheroine Octobriana may or may not have been created for anti-Soviet underground comics anonymously circulated in the USSR during the Cold War. Regardless of the truth of her origins, however, she is still in the public domain.
- Any character from traditional fairy tales, including those of Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Perrault, and The Brothers Grimm.
- Jenny Everywhere, the comic-book character, was explicitly created to serve this purpose. She's as close to public domain as modern copyright law permits of modern creations.
- Fu Manchu.
- The first three Fu Manchu books were published prior to 1922 and are public domain in the USA; however, some characters are not public domain since they were introduced later, particularly his daughter Fah Lo Suee, who was only named in a later book. This has caused problems for Marvel Comics, who cannot reprint Master of Kung Fu, which uses not only Fu Manchu but other characters from the series. Also, Fu Manchu is not in the public domain in Europe (Rohmer died in 1959), and Alan Moore could not name him in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
- Similarly, it is strongly intimated in the novelization of The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across The Eighth Dimension that Hanoi Xan, the unseen Big Bad who was completely edited out of the movie, is in fact Fu Manchu, but never explicitly stated.
- Popeye entered the public domain in Europe as of 2009.
- Mother Goose characters.
- Alice and other characters from Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
- One of Lewis Carroll's minor stories, "What the Tortoise Said to Achilles", written in 1895, was appropriated (with acknowledgment) by Douglas R. Hofstadter as a model for the dialogues in Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. The characters of the Tortoise and Achilles had in turn been suggested by an ancient Greek paradox.
- Sun Wukong/Son Goku from Journey to the West.
- Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru from Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari.
- Hua Mulan
- Beowulf
- Dave Sim has stated that upon his death, his Graphic Novel Cerebus The Aardvark will enter the public domain.
- Peter Pan
- Peter Pan is actually not in the public domain in United Kingdom, as it is one of the few fictional works to have a (limited) perpetual copyright, owned by the Great Ormond Street Hospital. This was gifted to them by Barrie himself in his will.
- Pinocchio
- Little Nemo (At least the character itself and the comic, not the movie.)
- Out Of Print is a Webcomic focusing Golden Age Super Heroes and the humor of being Public Domain Characters
- King Kong, sort of. The full story is complicated. Read The Other Wiki's take on it here.
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