Sherlock Holmes in the Public Domain

On Monday June 16th, 2014 an appellant court in Chicago ruled that the greatest fictional detective of all time, Sherlock Holmes and all of his stories published before 1923 were now in the public domain in the United States.  The Chicago Tribune covered the story. (I've included the link to the news story for two reasons. One it is very well written, and secondly because it does an excellent job explaining the legality of the situation.)

What I find so exciting however, is what this means for artists, story-tellers, and playwrights. These individuals no longer have to pay licensing fees to the Conan Doyle estate in order to use the character.

For someone like me, who oversees a college radio station, this is a tremendous opportunity because students or other aspiring individuals can now adapt one of the most famous literary characters of all time. The creative story-telling possibilities are endless. Of course there will probably be some poor adaptations of the character, but among all of these new adaptions, there could be a new interpretation that could totally reinvent the character.