That’s because both Mickey and Mellors, the Chatterley estate gamekeeper, made their first published appearance in 1928. The applicable law afforded them copyright protection for 95 years, a term expiring with the arrival of 2024. Thousands of other works — literary, dramatic and musical — are entering the copyright-free period of their lives, according to the annual select list compiled by Jennifer Jenkins, director of Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain.
