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Comic Book Characters Entering Public Domain in 2025....

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bminor:
Hello everyone!
I was just over at this site:

web.law.duke.edu

They have a page dedicated to upcoming public domain items for 2025!! 
A nice read.
I see that BUCK ROGERS will now be in the public domain.
Does this mean we can now share the entire Famous Funnies cover-to-cover, including Bucks' adventures?

https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2025/#:~:text=From%20comic%20strips%2C%20the%20original,number%20Singin'%20in%20the%20Rain.

What do you guys say or know about this?
Yours,
B.

OtherEric:
We need to do further research.  Any strips dated 1929 are definitely safe starting tomorrow.  The article you quote says the strips were not renewed and would be safe, but the estate is notoriously litigious and we may not want the fight.

If we can find out which strips were reprinted in which issues of Famous Funnies, some of the earliest issues may now be eligible for complete versions.

OtherEric:
An initial check suggests that the Famous Funnies reprints of Buck Rogers started with strips from 1933.  I haven't officially discussed the matter yet with the rest of staff, but I suspect we'll just be waiting on those from an overabundance of caution.

With that said, if anybody has scans of the Buck Rogers comic strips from 1929 available (not reprints), we would be happy to host those since they're safely PD at this point.

johndesmarais:
I think it's also important to be careful with language regarding these things.  The character "Buck Rogers" is not entering the public domain. The early strips have entered the public domain - and so the character as he appeared in those early strips does as well. Aspects of the character introduced later are still protected.

I generally find it safer to never consider characters with regards to public domain, and instead of think about published works.

larrytalbot:
Slippery distinction, that. Buck Rogers, the character, remains protected, while his 'strips' are now PD. So how does one access the PD strips - under what file names? Thanks.

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