Free Heroes, Hidden Traps: Using Public-Domain Franchises in Your Conch Adventures

Every January 1st, a new batch of famous stories, films, and characters loses its copyright in the United States. When that happens, anyone can use them: adapt them, remix them, or drop them into a noir mystery where they don't belong. For people who create Conch adventures, that's a lot of free material.

"Free" comes with fine print, though. This post covers what you can use today, what to watch out for, and which franchises open up over the next five years.

Quick note: this is a creator's guide, not legal advice. Copyright rules differ by country, and the details matter. If your adventure depends heavily on one character, check that character's status before you publish.

How the Clock Works (US)

Works published in the US between 1927 and 1977 are protected for 95 years. On January 1st of each year, everything published 95 years earlier goes free. As of January 1, 2026, everything published in 1930 or earlier is in the US public domain.

So the year a character first appeared is the year that matters. Only that first version goes free. Later versions keep their protection until their own clock runs out.

Three Different Laws, Three Different Questions

Most confusion comes from mixing these up. One famous character can be covered by three separate laws at once, and "public domain" only switches off the first one.

Copyright protects the character. That means their personality, backstory, powers, relationships, and signature traits, the things that make them them. A name on its own isn't copyrightable, and neither is a title or a short phrase. But a character can be. That's true whether you show them in pictures or only describe them in narration. An audio-only adventure is still copying if the character is still protected.

Trademark protects the name as a brand. It's about where the name appears and whether players would assume the owner made or approved your adventure. Inside the story, a mention is low risk. In the title, on the cover, or in marketing, it's the clearest way to infringe. Trademarks don't expire as long as the owner keeps using them, so a character can be out of copyright while its name is still a trademark.

Publicity rights protect real people. An actor's face, voice, and likeness belong to them (and often to their estate after they die), no matter who owns the character they played.

Here's how that plays out with a character who is still fully protected, like Indiana Jones (1981, owned by Lucasfilm until roughly 2076):

• "Indiana Jones" in your title: trademark infringement.
• The fedora-and-whip archaeologist professor who fears snakes, named or not: copyright infringement, even in audio only.
• Harrison Ford's face or a Ford sound-alike voice: publicity rights infringement.
• Swapping Ford for an AI-generated face: fixes only the third problem. The first two remain. And image models asked for "Indiana Jones" often recreate Ford's face anyway.

With a public-domain character like Dracula, copyright is gone, but trademark and publicity rights still apply. You can use the Count freely in your story. You still shouldn't build your title like a brand, and you still shouldn't make him look or sound like Bela Lugosi.

The legal path for a protected character is the archetype, not the character. A pulp-adventure archaeologist raiding trap-filled tombs is a genre, and nobody owns a genre. Give your hero an original name, look, and personality. Or borrow from a free predecessor like Allan Quatermain (King Solomon's Mines, 1885).

Already Free to Use

A short list of the big ones you can build with right now:

• Sherlock Holmes: all of the original stories, since 2023.
• Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger: the original books (Pooh in 2022, Tigger in 2024).
• Mickey Mouse and Minnie: the 1928 Steamboat Willie versions only (2024).
• Popeye: the 1929 comic-strip original (2025).
• Tintin: the first adventure only, and only in the US (2025).
• Betty Boop, Pluto, Blondie, Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon), Miss Marple, and the first Nancy Drew books: their 1930 debuts (2026).
• The classics: Dracula (the novel), Frankenstein (the novel), Tarzan, Zorro, Peter Pan, Oz, Alice, the Three Musketeers, King Arthur, Robin Hood, Greek and Norse myth, Hercule Poirot's early cases, and Lovecraft's early cosmic horror.

What to Watch Out For

1. Only the Original Version Is Free

When Pooh became free, the red shirt didn't come with him. Disney added it later. When Mickey became free, only the black-and-white, pie-eyed, no-dialogue Mickey of 1928 came with him.

How to apply it: describe characters the way the original work describes them. Leave out the costume, catchphrase, sidekick, or backstory a later movie added. If you're not sure where a trait came from, leave it out.

2. Free Characters Can Still Have Active Trademarks

Several estates and companies actively defend their public-domain characters with trademarks. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. does this for Tarzan, the Conan rights holders for Conan, Zorro Productions for Zorro, and Disney for Mickey.

How to apply it: tell a story about the character, but don't make their name look like your brand. Use a title like "The Jungle Lord's Revenge: a Tarzan tale", not "TARZAN™ Adventures." Never use studio logos, title-card lettering, or anything that suggests the owner endorsed you.

3. The Movie Version and the Book Version Are Separate

Bram Stoker's Dracula is free. The cape and widow's peak from the 1931 Universal film become free on January 1, 2027. The flat-headed, bolt-necked Frankenstein's monster is Universal's 1931 design. The novel's creature looks completely different. The green skin came later still.

How to apply it: pick your source and stick to it. Be extra careful with AI image generation. Ask an image model for "Frankenstein's monster" and you'll probably get the protected modern Universal look. Describe the creature from the source you're actually using instead.

4. Actors' Faces and Voices Are Never Part of the Deal

When a film goes public domain, the performer's likeness and voice don't come with it.

How to apply it: don't make NPCs look like Bela Lugosi or Boris Karloff, and never prompt for a real actor's voice. "A Transylvanian accent" is fine. "Sounds like Lugosi" is not.

5. "Free in the US" Doesn't Mean Free Everywhere

Most of the world uses "the author's life plus 70 years", not the US 95-year rule. So the same work can be free in one country and protected in another:

• Tintin: free in the US, but protected in the EU until about 2054 (Hergé died in 1983).
• Agatha Christie's characters: some are free in the US, but protected in the EU until about 2047.
• Peter Pan: the UK has a special permanent royalty right that funds Great Ormond Street Hospital.

How to apply it: Conch players are global. If a character is free only in the US, decide whether that risk is worth it before you publish.

6. Later Editions and Translations Have Their Own Copyright

The first Nancy Drew books are free, but the versions most people have read are the rewritten editions from 1959 onward, which are still protected. A modern translation of a free foreign book is also new, protected writing.

How to apply it: work from first editions or old translations. Project Gutenberg and HathiTrust are good places to find them.

7. Your Adventure Is Still Yours to Write

Public domain gives you the character, not a finished story. The best adventures don't retell the original. They put the character somewhere new. Sherlock investigating a theft in a 1957 jazz club makes a better adventure than a straight retelling of A Study in Scarlet, and it's also safer, because it's clearly your own work.

Coming Soon: What Goes Free in the Next Five Years

All dates are for the US and take effect January 1st. These are the original versions only; all the warnings above still apply.

2027 (Works From 1931)

• Dracula (1931 film): Lugosi's cape-and-tuxedo Count, as a design, not his face or voice.
• Frankenstein (1931 film): Karloff's flat-head monster design. Universal will still push trademarks hard.
• Dick Tracy: the original square-jawed detective from the comic strip.
• The Shadow: the pulp-magazine crime fighter.

2028 (Works From 1932)

• Goofy: his early "Dippy Dawg" version, not modern Goofy.
• Conan the Barbarian: the first Robert E. Howard story, The Phoenix on the Sword. The trademark is still actively enforced.
• The Mummy (1932 film).
• Brave New World.

2029 (Works From 1933)

• King Kong (1933 film).
• The Invisible Man (1933 film): the bandaged look from the movie. The novel is already free.
• Doc Savage: the pulp adventurer, often called the first superhero.

2030 (Works From 1934)

• Donald Duck: the 1934 long-billed version from The Wise Little Hen.
• Flash Gordon: the comic strip, including Ming and the planet Mongo.
• Mary Poppins: the book, not the Disney film.
• Murder on the Orient Express: US only.
• Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man) and Nero Wolfe: two great detective duos.

2031 (Works From 1935)

• Porky Pig: his first cartoon.
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935 film).

The big one to circle on your calendar is 2034, when Superman's first appearance (Action Comics #1, 1938) goes free. Batman follows in 2035.

A Quick Checklist Before You Publish

1. What year did the character first appear? If it's 1930 or earlier, you can use them in the US. If not, use the archetype instead of the character, even in audio only.
2. Am I only using traits from that original? No later costumes, catchphrases, or sidekicks.
3. Is my title a story, not a brand? No protected franchise names in the title, no logos, no ™, nothing that implies endorsement.
4. Do my images and voices avoid the movie look and real actors?
5. Is this character free outside the US too?
6. Is the adventure mine? A new setting, a new mystery, a new reason to play.

Classic characters are a great starting point, but the twist you add is what makes it your adventure. Go build something they've never been in before.