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Betty Boop Enters the Public Domain, but Only as a Dog
Joe Lancaster | 1.1.2026 8:00 AM
Betty Boop is one of the most iconic cartoons of the 20th century. A pinup drawn to look like a 1920s flapper, the character debuted nearly a century ago and quickly became a household name: In 1932, just two years after her debut, one newspaper article dubbed Betty Boop "without question…the most popular film personage on the screen today."
Today, the character enters the public domain, meaning it's free for anyone to use—but perhaps only as a dog. The bizarre saga illustrates what's wrong with modern copyright law.
Under the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, creative works are copyrighted until 70 years after the author's death, and works published between 1924 and 1978 are protected for 95 years. Therefore, anything originally published in 1930 enters the public domain today.
That includes Dizzy Dishes, the six-minute cartoon that featured the first appearance of Betty Boop. The cartoon and the character are now fair game,........
© Reason.com
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