January 1 in the USA will see the first release of works into the public domain in TWENTY YEARS!

Thank you, Disney and The Mouse. [/sarcasm]

Yes, thanks to Disney and Cher's ex-husband slamming into a tree while skiing, copyright got extended and for 20 years, in the USA, nothing was released into the public domain to protect Steamboat Willy. Well, this year that changes. Doesn't mean that Disney won't be gearing up for other changes and exclusions, but at least for now we'll be getting something.

Among new (almost century old) material getting released:
--Poems of Robert Frost
--Plays of Oscar Wilde
--Writings of Winston Churchill
--Cecil B. DeMille’s original The Ten Commandments
and lots of other stuff

A lot of this was already available on sites like Project Gutenberg in Canada and Australia, just not here.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/first-time-20-years-copyrighted-works-enter-public-domain-180971016/

Peter Jackson restoring World War I footage

Absolutely amazing. Not just the restoration, but re-timing it, then employing some people whom I did not know existed: Forensic Lip Readers to read what people were saying, then actors to create a soundtrack! Absolutely amazing.

The end result will be a documentary movie called They Shall Not Grow Old, I saw the trailer on the movie trailer channel on my Apple TV and I was stunned. I'm sure I'll have to wait for it to hit the Netflix or Amazon Prime as it definitely won't be showing at my local theater.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/16/movies/peter-jackson-war-movie.html