What Could Have Been Entering the Public Domain on January 1, 2011?

Some of the things that would be in the public domain at the beginning of 2011 if not for the Copyright Act of 1976:

• The first two volumes of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of Rings trilogy: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers
• Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot
• Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!
• Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
• C.S. Lewis’ The Horse and His Boy, the fifth volume of The Chronicles of Narnia
• On the Waterfront, directed by Elia Kazan; starring Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Rod Steiger, Karl Malden, and Lee J. Cobb
• Director Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, and Thelma Ritter
• The original Japanese-language release of Seven Samurai, directed by Akira Kurasawa; starring Takashi Shimura and Toshirō Mifune
• Dial M for Murder, directed by Hitchcock; starring Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, and Robert Cummings
• Walt Disney’s 20000 Leagues Under the Sea, starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason
• The cult horror classic, Creature from the Black Lagoon
• The enduring holiday chestnut, White Christmas, starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, and Vera Allen, featuring songs by Irving Berlin