FILE – A Museum of London employee poses for photographers next to an 1897 oil on canvas portrait of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle by illustrator Sidney Paget on display as part of the exhibition “Sherlock Holmes: The Man Who Never Lived and Will Never Die” at the Museum of London in London, Oct. 16, 2014. Sherlock Holmes is finally free to the public in 2023. The long dispute on contested copyright on Doyle’s tales of a whip-smart detective will come to an end in 2022, as the final Sherlock Holmes stories by Doyle will be released on Saturday, Dec. 31, as copyrights from 1927 expire on Jan. 1, 2023. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sherlock Holmes is finally free to the American public in 2023. The long-running contested copyright dispute over Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of a whipsmart detective will finally come to an end as the 1927 copyrights expiring Jan. 1 include Conan Doyle’s last Sherlock Holmes work. Once a work enters the public domain it can legally be shared, performed, reused, repurposed or sampled without permission or cost. Duke University’s Center for the Public Domain highlighted notable releases. Films entering the public domain include the first talkie, “The Jazz Singer” and Fritz Lang’s seminal sci-fi classic “Metropolis.” Musical compositions include “Puttin’ on the Ritz.”