Every year on April 23rd, the Leatherby Libraries celebrates the power of creativity and intellectual property in honor of World Book and Copyright Day. During this time, we acknowledge the power of creativity, storytelling, and legal systems that protect authors’ rights and the public’s ability to access and share intellectual property. Copyright plays a vital role in balancing these two important goals of protecting author’s rights to their creations while supporting the public’s access to knowledge and creative expression.  

Another critical part of maintaining this balance is the public domain. When a work “enters” the public domain, which can happen for various reasons, it is no longer protected by copyright. This has significant consequences because it allows others to use creative work without permission from its original creator. The concept of the public domain enables creators and artists to build upon, remix, and reuse literature and other creative works, allowing cultural artifacts to evolve in the present day.  

An example of a public domain work is William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. This work inspired the movie 10 Things I Hate About You. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice has also entered the public domain and made it into the zombie novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Other titles that entered the public domain for the first time in 2025 include Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms and Agatha Christie’s The Seven Dials Mystery.  

The public domain keeps culture alive, relevant, and accessible by allowing modern artists to use public domain work freely, encouraging education, collaboration, innovation, and creativity.  

Are you interested in checking out these works? The Leatherby Libraries has all the titles mentioned in this blog post: The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things I Hate About You, Pride and Prejudice, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, A Farewell to Arms, and the Seven Dials Mystery! 

We created a book display highlighting literary copyright in the First Floor Lobby to continue the discussion about copyright and literature. You can also view its curated bibliography here. Stay tuned for our blog post exploring some of the titles featured in this display!

Happy World Book and Copyright Day!  

Note: This blog is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a copyright/legal advice.