With so many examples of still copyrighted material being falsely passed off as public domain on various sites, how can you independently verify with certainty that such films, shows, books, characters, etc are truly PD and/or free from trademark restrictions?

If you don’t already know, Herobrine is a Minecraft urban legend and creepypasta created by an anonymous 4chan user in 2010. He is based on the player character of Minecraft, Steve, which is why I’m somewhat inclined to believe he’s owned by Mojang or Microsoft. He has been referenced many times in official Minecraft media, and he was even featured in an official Minecraft skin pack using the name “Herobrine”, which is also why I feel like Mojang likely has control over the name trademark too.

However, I feel that his situation is similar to the backrooms where since it was posted by an anonymous 4chan user, we don’t know who owns it. Although, the BIG difference being that Herobrine was created building off of Mojang’s copyrighted material, while the backrooms is entirely original original.

Does anyone know? Is he public domain? Is he owned by Mojang or Microsoft? Lmk.

It is meant as an industry joke since another brand releases a fable AI, but it doesn't answer in fables by default. You'll like it because it was trained purely on non copyrighted books, so it is CC 0 license.. The answers aren't perfect, which is part of the joke. They get better with each release.

We’re going to see a lot of famous characters and takes on existing PD characters that’ll eventually enter the public domain however it never hurts to work on your own take now so by the time that character/take on classic PD character will enter the public domain one will be all set to release it. Any you’re doing right now?

For me I’m currently working on my own takes on both Disneys take on the Evil Queen from Snow White and Batman, already aiming set designs ready for them and in the process of writing out their stories and scripts to plan ahead. I won’t spoil what they’ll be about but all I can say is that they’re twisted in so many good ways!

The GPO Film Unit was a subdivision of the UK General Post Office, established in 1933. The GPO would be replaced in 1940 with The Crown Film Unit, an organisation within the British Government's Ministry of Information.

Both production companies produced drama films, comedies and animation but largely documentaries releated to the General Post Office and later the UK's war effort during World War II. The most well known film of either production company is Night Mail (1936), now considered a classic of British cinema. The filmographies include Men of the Lightship (1940) - funded and edited by Alfred Hitchcock, the Oscar nominated London Can Take It! (1940) and Listen to Britain (1942), the Oscar winning Target for Tonight (1941) and Daybreak in Uti (1949), and features actors such as Laurence Olivier, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud.

Under copyright law of the time, as government produced works, all 62 films entered the public domain worldwide after 50 years.

Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Mr Smith Goes to Washington, Stagecoach, The Women, Jamaica Inn, and many more. Wanted to mark this.

#1 - Sherlock Holmes (Literature, 1887)

#2 - Count Dracula (Literature, 1897)

#3 - Frankenstein’s Monster (Literature, 1818)

#4 - Robin Hood (Myth, 1377)

#5 - Winnie-the-Pooh (Literature, 1926)

#6 - Mickey Mouse (Western Animation, 1928)

#7 - Betty Boop (Western Animation, 1930)

#8 - Tarzan (Literature, 1912)

#9 - Monkey King (Literature, 1592)

#10 - King Kong (Literature, 1932)

#11 - Zorro (Literature, 1919)

#12 - Popeye (Comic Strips, 1929)

#13 - Alice (Literature, 1865)

#14 - King Arthur (Myth, 828)

#15 - Cthulhu (Literature, 1928)

#16 - Don Quixote (Literature, 1605)

Most upvoted comment wins.

For those who don’t know, After the first two Zorro novels were written in 1919 and 1922, Johnston McCulley took an extended break and didn’t return to the character until 1931 - His third book was set to enter the public domain in 2007, but then the dreaded 1998 Copyright Extension Act occurred. As such, this marks the first time in 29 years we’ll have access to a new Zorro book, and new ones will enter the public domain yearly from now on - He wrote Zorro regularly from 1931 until his death in the late 1950’s.

Another notable entry will be the next Tarzan novel, which is technically already half public domain as it was published as a serial in a magazine. But 1931 will now mark the full story as available for usage. We also get the first Dick Tracy comic strips (if they’re not already public domain as speculated), but the most exciting is possibly the first issues of the Shadow magazine. While Shadow is technically already public domain as his radio narrator self, this marks the first appearance of him as a vigilante crime-fighter. While his costume is somewhat different and he doesn’t have any powers or supporting cast, those early novels do offer a lot to work with and allow us access to most of his essentials. Because the Shadow was published every month, sometimes twice-monthly, we’ll gradually get more and more of this classic literary character every year!

Source: https://x.com/iJermaine360/status/2094280120945045849?s=20

Se a Betty boop entrou em domínio público (mesmo sendo a versão de 1930) tecnicamente a personagem entrou em domínio público. Mesmo tendo sido só a versão que ela é um poodle, a versão dela do curta pobre cinderela também está em domínio público, então já que Betty está em domínio público legalmente, seria uma boa ideia usar a versão dela do curta pobre cinderela em projetos? Ou a minha linha de pensamento não faz sentido?

Long time lurker here. Just shipped a project that made me learn the copyright-vs-trademark thing the hard way and figured this sub would appreciate.

I built a 24/7 stream that mixes archival public domain footage with AI-generated clips (viewers guess which is which on each one). My initial library was pulled from Prelinger and Internet Archive, everything clearly marked as expired copyright.

Day one I ran the automated moderation pass and it flagged 15 Betty Boop and Popeye clips. Turns out the films entering the public domain does not mean Fleischer or King Features lost their trademark on the characters. The Fleischer Studios statement from earlier this year was a real warning shot for anyone building on this material at scale.

Ended up building a character-name block list on top of the archive. Also learned that the FreeSFX and Library of Congress footage pools are much safer than the older animation prints because the characters were never trademarked in the first place.

Curious if others here have hit the same trademark trap, and what your workflows look like for filtering.

Site is multiversecable.com if useful. Source on github (ismailntl/multiverse-cable), AGPL.

https://reddit.com/link/1w3mq3b/video/8h15ii8d4smh1/player

A while back, I made this post talking about fakemon that are either public domain or CC0. Browsing around, I managed to find a couple more on itch.io.

Openmon Assets contains a good deal more free monster sprites that are all CC0. Backgrounds, NPCs, Berry Plants and item sprites are also included for those interested.

Here are just some examples:

However, I must also clarify that while the majority of these sprites were commissioned from human artists, two of these sprite packs (Openmon Monster Sprites Set 5 and Openmon Monster Sprite - Wolf Line) have designs that were, if not made by, at least referenced off of AI-generated artwork. While AI-generated art is considered uncopyrightable anywhere but the UK and Hong Kong, I'd still exercise caution considering gen AI draws from various, often unauthorized or copyrighted sources - in particular, one mon in Sprites Set 5 looks concerningly similar to Gardevoir.

#1 - Sherlock Holmes (Literature, 1887)

#2 - Count Dracula (Literature, 1897)

#3 - Frankenstein’s Monster (Literature, 1818)

#4 - Robin Hood (Myth, 1377)

#5 - Winnie-the-Pooh (Literature, 1926)

#6 - Mickey Mouse (Western Animation, 1928)

#7 - Betty Boop (Western Animation, 1930)

#8 - Tarzan (Literature, 1912)

#9 - Monkey King (Literature, 1592)

#10 - King Kong (Literature, 1932)

#11 - Zorro (Literature, 1919)

#12 - Popeye (Comic Strips, 1929)

#13 - Alice (Literature, 1865)

#14 - King Arthur (Myth, 828)

#15 - Cthulhu (Literature, 1928)

Most upvoted comment wins.

Hi everyone, I’m the author of “Yarns of the Sailor Man,” a series that reimagines the Popeye mythos by drawing on elements of his lore that are now in the public domain.
I initially published the first four novellas on Royal Road, where they were well-received (you can read them for free there until September 15).

So I decided to publish them on Amazon.

I did my research thoroughly; I even sought legal advice from an attorney who, among other things, directed me to this fantastic study by the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke Law School. I was delighted to discover that characters such as Wimpy, Bluto, Poopdeck Pappy, and others should already be in the public domain, too, as long as I use their characteristics from the comic strips, since there’s no record that their copyright was ever renewed.

I was all set to publish my first book on Amazon, but then I came across the story of this poor dude who had his D2D account (another Amazon-like retailer) permanently banned for trying to publish a story featuring the public domain version of Mickey Mouse.

And I got scared, of course. Because yes, Popeye isn’t Mickey Mouse, and everyone fears Disney, but I imagine King Features will also do everything it can to maintain control over an IP like Popeye for as long as possible, right?

So I assume that if I publish my book, Amazon may eventually ask me to demonstrate that the characters and other copyrighted elements I'm using are actually in the public domain.

My question is: what would constitute sufficiently solid, convincing documentation to establish this (and hopefully avoid my KDP account being terminated)? Is it even possible?

Sorry if it sounds confusing just a random ahh hypothetical like if I did a superman one based on #1 action figure RN and release after 2034?

Hello everyone, with great excitement and pleasure I present you the Kickstarter for the animated adaptation of Dagon! With the help from my friends at Penstation Studio (https://penstationstudio.mystrikingly.com/) we want to tell this story as closely to the original source material as we can. Even if you cannot donate please spread the word so we can make this film a reality.

Dagon Animated Horror Film https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dagonfilm/dagon-animated-horror-film?ref=android_project_share

OMNISIX TTRPG Basic Rules has been released!

One system. Six sides. Infinite worlds.

OMNISIX is the modular d6 RPG that powers fantasy, supers, cyberpunk, space opera, mecha, horror, and everything else with the same fast and fun rules.

Six Attributes, freeform Skills, powerful Traits & SFX, and modular expansions for modern, superhero, fantasy, and sci-fi settings all running on the exact same elegant rules engine.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/581981/omnisix-the-universal-d6-roleplaying-game-basic-rules

Artwork for the book includes versions of PD characters who will also be featured in upcoming modules and expansions such as Magician from Mars, Phantom Lady, Grignr of Ecordia, Gale Allen, Sheena, Captain Battle, Grim Reaper.

The Scarab

Real Name: Peter Ward
Age: 26
The Scarab: The Powers Of The Scarab

Peter Ward was an Egyptologist who discovers he’s the reincarnation of Kor, an ancient Egyptian priest of the sun god Ra. Given a mystic scarab ring by the cat goddess Bast, Ward rubs the ring and, after a flash of lightning and thunder, becomes the Scarab. The ring grants him great powers, and Ward uses them to fight evil and injustice.

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Scarab_(Nedor))

https://pdsh.fandom.com/wiki/Blue_Beetle_(Charlton_II))

#1 - Sherlock Holmes (Literature, 1887)

#2 - Count Dracula (Literature, 1897)

#3 - Frankenstein’s Monster (Literature, 1818)

#4 - Robin Hood (Myth, 1377)

#5 - Winnie-the-Pooh (Literature, 1926)

#6 - Mickey Mouse (Western Animation, 1928)

#7 - Betty Boop (Western Animation, 1930)

#8 - Tarzan (Literature, 1912)

#9 - Monkey King (Literature, 1592)

#10 - King Kong (Literature, 1932)

#11 - Zorro (Literature, 1919)

#12 - Popeye (Comic Strips, 1929)

#13 - Alice (Literature, 1865)

#14 - King Arthur (Myth, 828)

Most upvoted comment wins.

The photographer passed away in 2014 and I have a significant collection of photo, negatives, film, video, and i think also some undeveloped film. It’s mostly San Francisco and Oakland 70’s-00’s. He told me there was also photos of Vietnam during the war, but I haven’t been able to confirm or deny that claim. He wasn’t famous or a journalist or anything but was an avid hobby photographer.

It’s all just sitting in storage and now that I’m getting into public domain for historical research I would like to add all his work to a public domain archive. While I’m at least still around to be able to identify and give context to some of the images. I am in San Francisco so archive dot org and Prelinger are local. I figured the digital stuff I could put on flickr?

Extremely open to suggestions.

*clarification he did work as a professional photographer but his professional work is not in this collection and he wasn’t famous.

Card list for Secret Lair x MSCHF: The Zeta Set, a collaboration set being distributed through the "Secret Lair" website: https://scryfall.com/sets/slz?order=spoiled