Well, on a sleep-deprived morning in mid-late June, I decided to take a leaf out of Austin McConnell‘s book and talk briefly about cool stuff that is in the public domain (eg: not copyrighted).
Whilst most of these sorts of articles are US-focused, because of the quirks of US copyright law, I want to include things that are also either definitely or possibly in the public domain in Britain as well. Whilst I have done some basic research, nothing in this article should be considered legal advice (because I’m not a lawyer).
1) (Some) NASA Photos: Looking on their actual website there seem to be more rules surrounding the use of NASA photographs than I originally expected – regarding things like logos, identifiable people and commercial use. Plus, photos that NASA has taken in collaboration with other space agencies might not be in the public domain.
Still, at least some of the photos taken by NASA seem to be in the public domain in both Britain and the US, because of rules which mean that most things created and released to the public by US government agencies are released without copyright.
So, whilst you might have to do a bit of research, what this means is that there are lots of cool photos of psychedelic nebulae, star-fields with cool retro sci-fi diffraction spikes etc… which can be used relatively freely without worries about copyright. For example, I’ve been using this cool composite photo from 1987-1991 of the Orion Belt as my desktop background for the past four or five years.
Click for larger image) The full-size version of this picture makes a surprisingly good desktop background. Especially with the orange/blue palette.
2) “The Irish Ballad” by Tom Lehrer: Yes, everyone of a certain age learnt about Tom Lehrer in chemistry lessons in school, when the teacher wheeled out an old CRT television and a VCR to play an educational video which ended with his famous song “The Elements” – a Gilbert And Sullivan-inspired number which lists large parts of the Periodic Table. It’s weirdly catchy. And Tom Lehrer decided to release all of his music without copyright at some point between 2007-2022
But, whilst “The Elements” was his most famous song, I want to talk about a timelessly hilarious – and equally catchy – dark comedy song from 1953 called “The Irish Ballad“. Many of Lehrer’s songs had a very twisted sense of humour, and this one has to be my favourite. Funny and disturbing at the same time, it tells the story of a teenage serial killer who slays every member of her family in increasingly gruesome and bizarre ways. The whole song is sung in this mock-tragic tone, which contrasts perfectly with the grisly slapstick comedy and jaunty piano music. And it all ends with brilliantly funny punchline too.
There are also some funny asides from Lehrer at the end (“You should never have let me begin…“) and the random phrase “Ricketty-tickety-tin” which he repeats throughout the song is also weirdly hypnotic as well. It’s atmospheric and funny and scary and, to the best of my knowledge, it has somehow never appeared in a horror movie so far. But it really should, because it would be literally perfect for a horror movie.
3) “Night Of The Living Dead” (1968): Talking of horror movies, I thought that I’d end with a fairly well-known one. Due to some quirks of how US copyright law used to work, George A. Romero’s genre-defining 1968 zombie movie “Night Of The Living Dead” was accidentally released without copyright in the US.
(Click for larger image) This is a screenshot from “Night Of The Living Dead” (1968). The first time I saw this film was during the early-mid 2000s, on a tiny CRT television late at night when I was about fourteen. And, looking at it again briefly, I’m amazed at how good the lighting design is in some parts.
There seems to be some debate about whether or not this means that it is also public domain in the UK – a lot of this seems to hinge on uncertainty about the film’s original UK release date (eg: if it was more than thirty days after its US release then, according to Section 155 (3) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, the US rules would apply...) – but the film’s UK copyright status has not, to my knowledge, ever been formally tested in a court of law.
Anyway, this film is a legendary classic of the zombie genre, which tells a surprisingly claustrophobic story about a group of people trapped in a remote house surrounded by the risen dead. As well as having an unforgettably shocking ending, it’s also famous for the “They’re coming to get you, Barbara” line near the beginning which has been sampled numerous times. Plus, the actor who played the very first zombie to appear in the film – Bill Hinzman – even went on to direct and star in a hilariously brilliant zombie movie of his own during the 1980s as well.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
