The news that most interested me as we arrived in 2024 is the wealth of cultural material that has moved into the public domain.

What that means is anyone can now do anything they want with it, at no charge. This usually happens 95 years after original release.

You’ve probably heard about it already since the biggest scalp up for grabs is Disney’s original Mickey Mouse. Disney has long lobbied for a postponement, and in 1998 succeeded in extending American copyright from 75 to 95 years. But 95 years is now up for the iconic mouse, who debuted in the 1928 cartoon ‘Steamboat Willie’.

Thousands of other works released that year also entered the public domain.

Take Tigger, for instance, who can now feature in the sequel to the film ‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey’, planned for February. Last year’s original film starred a psychotic sledge-hammering Pooh after he came out of copyright but Tigger wasn’t in the very first Pooh book so had to wait.

Also losing copyright are ‘Peter Pan’ and ‘Lady Chatterley’s Lover’, Virginia Woolf’s ‘Orlando’, and films including Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Circus’, and Carl Theodor Dreyer’s classic ‘The Passion of Joan of Arc’.

Songs

Then there are songs...being out of copyright means anyone can sample or otherwise ransack ‘Mack The Knife’, ‘I Want To Be Loved By You’, and ‘Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)’. Personally, I’m hanging out for a techno remix of ‘Yes! We Have No Bananas’.

These laws also apply to creators, whose entire oeuvre expires 70 years after their death in most cases.

This year the works of Hilaire Belloc, Eugene O’Neille, Dylan Thomas and Hank Williams enter the public domain and can be used freely. New Zealand is different, with a 50-year term, and I can find only two local writers whose work can now be appropriated with impunity: poet Charles Brasch and children’s author Isabel Peacock. Both died in 1973.

Upcoming gigs

On to January gigs. Yes it’s a list. But it’s a good list, all worthwhile things: follow up on-line for mucho info and tickets...

Next Friday, January 19, at Katikati’s Arts Junction, the Folk Club host two duos: Nashville-based South For Winter, who combine harmonies, acoustic and electric guitars, mandolin, and suitcase stomps into something leaning Americana-wards; and Auckland’s Mollymawks – guitar/vocals/violin – playing original material with a Celtic flavour.

Sunday, January 21, at the Jam Factory there’s Rory B-C, a young English guy now resident here who has released some quirky Spotify singles, seems remarkably amiable, and comes across as a little musical theatre, a little Brit-pop. Interesting.

On Saturday, January 27, same place it’s Auckland female-fronted power-pop surf quartet Coast Arcade, whose latest single ‘Kiss Like This’ is catchy as all get-up and who seem destined for great things.

And one more: Kokomo is playing the Te Puna Quarry Park Amphitheatre on Sunday afternoon, January 28, with blues legends Mike Garner and Robbie Laven. Fun in the sun! Tickets are now on sale.

To hear Winston’s latest Playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3B3jbZa9qBAuU1oYS4WRXV?si=375eec991a29456e

To embed Playlist: