The first appearances of the classic cartoon and comic characters are among the pieces of intellectual property whose 95-year US copyright maximum has been reached, putting them in the public domain on January 1. That means creators can use and repurpose them without permission or payment. The 2026 batch of newly public artistic creations doesn't quite have the sparkle of the recent first entries into the public domain of Mickey or Winnie. But ever since 2019 - the end of a 20-year IP drought brought on by congressional copyright extensions - every annual crop has been a bounty for advocates of more work belonging to the public. Here's a closer look at what will enter the public domain. When she first appears in the 1930 short Dizzy Dishes, one of four of her cartoons entering the public domain, she's already totally recognizable as the Jazz Age flapper later memorialized in countless tattoos, T-shirts and bumper stickers. She has her baby face, short hair with groomed curl...
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