Winnie-the-Pooh Comes to Bloom!

A great story draws people together. It reaches across borders and languages, building empathy and understanding in a world where nothing could be more vital. And there are few stories that are more widely beloved than A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh.

This little stuffed bear has inspired songs, television shows, plays, and even books of philosophy. He has endeared himself to children of all ages, inspiring countless stories since his first appearance in 1924.

And now—because International Copyright Law has decreed that 98 years is long enough for someone to own a stuffed bear—Winnie-the-Pooh has finally entered the public domain.

Which means [DRUMROLL, PLEASE] we can legally make Winnie-the-Pooh available on the Bloom platform. For free!

Who owns a story?

Is it the person who writes it? The publisher? Or is it the people who ultimately read it, bring it alive, and carry it forward with them?

It’s a question that, like all questions involving the intersection of commerce and art, has no easy answer… and the answers we do come up with often say more about our perspective as storytellers and consumers of stories than they do about a transcendent story-ownership-reality.

Artists and writers admittedly need time to create and resources to live on while they’re doing so. And excellence should be rewarded, so copyrights are essential for promoting excellence and allowing artists to do their thing.

But storytelling is a universal impulse, and we don’t believe that storybook creation should only be available to professionals, or to people with access to traditional publishing.

All the stories in the Bloom library are essentially owned by everyone. They are written and shared freely, so that the audience can also participate – adapting the stories to their needs. Words are translated, images are swapped in, voices are recorded and added to the mix.

In Bloom, the reader is invited to participate – to be both an owner and, hopefully, a co-creator in a project with a heart that beats with this sentiment: that stories are part of who we are as people, and are central to a conversation that can build bridges from one culture to another.

We hope and believe that great stories can and will be told through the Bloom platform. That creators will continue to tell their stories in a way that captures the imagination of readers and storytellers all over the world.

And we are excited to share Winnie-the-Pooh on Bloom, because it means that now our fuzzy little friend can be easily shared across cultures and languages. People around the world can begin to make translations of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories into their own languages.

While we are most excited when people begin to tell their own stories, in the languages that matter most to them, the fact remains that the best art and the best stories happen as part of a larger cultural conversation. This is a conversation that everyone, from the most savvy urbanite living in a metropolis like Rio de Janeiro, to an itinerant shepherd on the steppes of outer Mongolia, is increasingly being drawn into.

We are sharing Winnie-the-Pooh not because it is more valuable than the stories of a remote village in Papua New Guinea (it very much isn’t), but because we think the people living in that village might benefit from having access to such a wonderful story.

And just as Winnie-the-Pooh has already inspired stories in countless dominant languages around the world, perhaps this will be the year that he inspires a wonderful new story in Makolkol, Oriomo, or Butam-Taulil.