NPR

Freed From Copyright, These Classic Works Are Yours To Adapt

For the first time in 20 years, a large body of films, music, and books has entered the public domain. That means they can be reworked by new creators in conversation with the originals.
American actor Theodore Roberts as Moses in Cecil B. DeMille's silent version of <em>The Ten Commandments —</em> one of many works from 1923 that entered the public domain on Jan. 1.

Think Tarzan and the Golden Lion needed a different ending?

Perhaps you want to adapt Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet into a graphic novel.

Or maybe you want to have a go at incorporating Robert Frost's poem "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" into a virtual choir piece, as composer Eric Whitacre once did before encountering a copyright snag that killed the project.

Well, the chance to dust off these three — and countless other works originally copyrighted in

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