On January 1, 2022, a new class of creative works entered the public domain in the United States. From a certain honey-loving bear and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood to a classic Gershwin ballad, works published or registered in 1926 now join pre-1925 works already in the public domain.
The public domain is an important part of the lifecycle of copyright. Article 1, section 8 of the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power, “To promote the Progre