Public Domain Day

On February 13, The Ohio State University Symphonic Band shared a concert with the Hilliard Davidson High School Wind Symphony. Featured on the concert was a march titled The Stadium by Ralph Price, newly edited from the original 1924 parts by Professor Alan Green, and offered as part of the Public Domain Project at Ohio State. The concert also featured Sounds from The Oval by alumna and retired Hilliard Band faculty, Lisa Galvin. (Pictured L to R: Alan Green; Lisa Galvin; Shawn Malone, conductor, Hilliard Davidson Wind Symphony; Scott A. Jones, conductor, The Ohio State University Symphonic Band.)

 

From L to R: Prof. Alan Green (editor of “The Stadium” by Ralph Price), Lisa Galvin (composer of the last work on the concert, “Sounds from The Oval”), Shawn Malone, conductor, Hilliard Davidson Wind Symphony, and Prof. Scott A. Jones, conductor, The Ohio State University Symphonic Band.

On January 1 of each year, we celebrate Public Domain Day: the day that new works enter the public domain. Public domain works are free of copyright restrictions, meaning they can be freely copied, adapted, distributed, performed and displayed without having to seek permission from a rightsholder.

On January 1, 2020, we will welcome into the public domain works first registered or published in the United States in 1924. With thousands of new works now entering the public domain, each year presents new materials and new opportunities to engage with copyright-free content.

 Whether it’s organizing a public film screening, including an image in a research article or sharing copies of works in an online blog or course page, public domain works can be used to support future learning, scholarship and creative endeavors from The Ohio State University community and beyond.

The Public Domain Day Project began in 2019 as a way to share information about public domain materials and to highlight and encourage creative uses of those works. New materials that are created as part of the project are also being dedicated to the public domain through the use of the Creative Commons CC0 tool. This collaborative project involves partners within University Libraries, the School of Music, the Wexner Center for the Arts and other units across the campus.

In 2019, works first registered or published in the United States in 1923 entered the public domain. To celebrate, University Libraries collaborated with the School of Music to offer live performances of public domain music, and also offered a film screening of the public domain silent film Safety Last! in partnership with the Wexner Center for the Arts.

The first project event in 2020 will be a free concert at Hilliard Davidson High School on Thursday, February 13 at 7:00pm. The Ohio State University Symphonic Band, conducted by Professor Scott A. Jones, will perform The Stadium, a march by Ohio composer Ralph W. Price, using Alan Green’s new Creative Commons edition based on the original 1924 parts. This rediscovered work was written shortly after Ohio Stadium opened, for The Ohio State University Band and their director Gustav Bruder.

To stay up to date on events for 2020 and to learn more about the project, visit the Public Domain Day website at go.osu.edu/PublicDomainDay.