Sherlock Holmes is Now in the Public Domain

Sherlock Holmes stories are now a part of the public domain, according to a new ruling from a federal judge.

The decision comes out of a lawsuit brought about by author Leslie S. Klinger against the Conan Doyle estate. Klinger was working on an anthology called In the Company of Sherlock Holmes and the estate contacted the publisher Pegasus Books explaining that they must get a license in order to publish a book. The estate said they would block the book from major book retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble.