The 95-year-old U.S. copyright maximum has been reached for Betty Boop and Blondie, the Associated Press reports.
Both properties entered the public domain on Jan. 1, meaning people can use them and repurpose them without permission or payment. Also joining the public domain as of this year are the first four Nancy Drew books by Carolyn Keene and Dashiell Hammett’s “The Maltese Falcon.”
They join Mickey and Winnie the Pooh as public domain entities.
Betty Boop made her debut in animation in 1930, starring in the “Dizzy Dishes” animated short. Blondie Boopadoop was part of Chic Young’s newspaper comic strip that debuted the same year.
