When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2007. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
Entered the public domain in countries with life + 70 years
[edit]With the exception of Belarus (Life + 50 years) and Spain (Life + 80 years for creators that died before 1987), a work enters the public domain in Europe 70 years after the creator's death, if it was published during the creator's lifetime.[1][2] The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator that entered the public domain on January 1, 2007.
Names | Country | Birth | Death | Occupation | Notable work |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
James Churchward | ![]() |
27 February 1851 | 4 January 1936 | occult writer. | The Lost Continent of Mu, the Motherland of Men, The Children of Mu |
Ramón del Valle-Inclán | ![]() |
28 October 1866 | 5 January 1936 | dramatist, novelist. | El marqués de Bradomín. Coloquios románticos (The Marquis of Bradomin. Romantic meetings), Bohemian Lights |
Mateiu Caragiale | ![]() |
25 March 1885 | 17 January 1936 | novelist, poet. | Craii de Curtea-Veche (Rakes of the Old Court), Remember |
Rudyard Kipling | ![]() |
30 December 1865 | 18 January 1936 | novelist, poet, short-story writer. | The Jungle Book, The Second Jungle Book |
Elizabeth Robins Pennell | ![]() |
21 February 1855 | 7 February 1936 | art critic, biographer, memoirist, travel writer. | Nights: Rome & Venice in the Aesthetic Eighties, London & Paris in the Fighting Nineties |
Rahel Sanzara | ![]() |
9 February 1894 | 8 February 1936 | novelist. | Das verlorene Kind (The Lost Child), Die glückliche Hand |
Lidia Veselitskaya | ![]() |
17 March 1857 | 23 February 1936 | novelist, short-story writer, memoirist, translator. | Mimi's Marriage, Mimi at the Springs, Mimi Poisons Herself |
Mikhail Kuzmin | ![]() |
18 October 1872 | 1 March 1936 | musician, novelist, poet. | Wings, Alexandrian Songs |
A. de Herz | ![]() |
15 December 1887 | 9 March 1936 | playwright, poet, short-story writer. | Păianjenul (The Spider), Noaptea Învierii (Resurrection Night) |
Marguerite Durand | ![]() |
24 January 1864 | 16 March 1936 | journalist, pamphlet writer. | founder of the newspaper La Fronde (The Sling) |
A. E. Housman | ![]() |
26 March 1859 | 30 April 1936 | classical scholar, poet. | A Shropshire Lad, Last Poems |
Robert E. Howard | ![]() |
22 January 1906 | 11 June 1936 | sword and sorcery writer. | The Hour of the Dragon, Worms of the Earth |
M. R. James | ![]() |
1 August 1862 | 12 June 1936 | ghost story writer, medievalist, antiquarian. | Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, More Ghost Stories |
Karl Kraus | ![]() |
28 April 1874 | 12 June 1936 | essayist, playwright, poet, satirist. | Die letzten Tage der Menschheit (The Last Days of Mankind), Literatur oder man wird doch da sehn (Literature, or You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet) |
G. K. Chesterton | ![]() |
29 May 1874 | 14 June 1936 | mystery writer, philosopher, lay theologian, apologist. | The Napoleon of Notting Hill, The Man Who Was Thursday |
Maxim Gorky | ![]() |
28 March 1868 | 18 June 1936 | novelist, playwright, poet, short-story writer. | The Life of Klim Samgin, The Artamonov Business |
Donald Maxwell | ![]() |
14 April 1877 | 25 July 1936 | travel writer, illustrator. | regular illustrator for the newspapers The Graphic and Church Times |
F. J. Harvey Darton | ![]() |
22 September 1878 | 26 July 1936 | literary historian, novelist, publisher. | The Story of English Children's Books in England: Five Centuries of Social Life, Alibi Pilgrimage |
Mourning Dove | ![]() |
1884 | 8 August 1936 | Western novelist, folklore writer. | Cogewea, Coyote Stories |
Grazia Deledda | ![]() |
27 September 1871 | 15 August 1936 | novelist. | After the Divorce, Canne al vento (Reeds in the wind) |
Federico García Lorca | ![]() |
5 June 1898 | 19 August 1936 | playwright, poet. | The Butterfly's Evil Spell, The Billy-Club Puppets |
Juliette Adam | ![]() |
4 October 1836 | 23 August 1936 | novelist, memoirist. | Mes premières armes littéraires et politiques, Mes sentiments et nos idées avant 1870 |
J. Slauerhoff | ![]() |
15 September 1898 | 5 October 1936 | novelist, poet. | Het verboden rijk (The forbidden kingdom), Oost-Azië (East Asia) |
Stefan Grabiński | ![]() |
26 February 1887 | 12 November 1936 | horror writer. | Z Wyjątków. W Pomrokach Wiary (Exceptions: In the Dark of Faith), Na Wzgórzu Róż (On the Hill of Roses) |
Luigi Pirandello | ![]() |
28 June 1867 | 10 December 1936 | dramatist, novelist, poet, short-story writer. | The Late Mattia Pascal, Six Characters in Search of an Author |
Frances Garnet Wolseley, 2nd Viscountess Wolseley | ![]() |
15 September 1872 | 24 December 1936 | gardening writer. | Gardening for Women, Women on the Land |
Kristína Royová | ![]() |
18 August 1860 | 27 December 1936 | novelist, poet. | Bez Boha na svete (Without God in the world), Bludári (Heretics) |
John Cornford | ![]() |
27 December 1915 | 28 December 1936 | poet. | Full Moon At Tierz |
Miguel de Unamuno | ![]() |
29 September 1864 | 31 December 1936 | classics scholar, novelist, playwright, philosopher. | Abel Sánchez: The History of a Passion, Mist |
Entered the public domain in countries with life + 50 years
[edit]In most countries of Africa and Asia, as well as Belarus, Bolivia, Canada, New Zealand, Egypt and Uruguay; a work enters the public domain 50 years after the creator's death.
Names | Country | Birth | Death | Occupation | Notable work |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Wickham Steed | ![]() |
10 October 1871 | 13 January 1956 | historian, journalist. | Hitler Whence and Whither?, The Meaning of Hitlerism |
Sheila Kaye-Smith | ![]() |
4 February 1887 | 14 January 1956 | novelist. | Joanna Godden, The End of the House of Alard |
H. L. Mencken | ![]() |
12 September 1880 | 29 January 1956 | cultural critic, essayist, satirist. | The American Language, The Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche |
A. A. Milne | ![]() |
18 January 1882 | 31 January 1956 | novelist, playwright, poet. | Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner |
Edmund Clerihew Bentley | ![]() |
10 July 1875 | 30 March 1956 | humorist, mystery novelist, poet. | Trent's Last Case, Trent's Own Case |
Arthur Talmage Abernethy | ![]() |
10 October 1872 | 15 May 1956 | poet, theologian. | The Hell You Say!: A Novel, The Jew a Negro; Being a Study of the Jewish Ancestry from an Impartial Standpoint |
Max Beerbohm | ![]() |
24 August 1872 | 20 May 1956 | caricaturist, humorist, novelist, parodist. | Zuleika Dobson, The Happy Hypocrite |
Ion Călugăru | ![]() |
14 February 1902 | 22 May 1956 | novelist, short-story writer. | Copilăria unui netrebnic (The Childhood of a Ne'er-do-well), Oțel și pîine (Steel and Bread) |
Walter de la Mare | ![]() |
25 April 1873 | 22 June 1956 | children's writer, horror writer. | Memoirs of a Midget, Collected Stories for Children |
Nicos Nicolaides | ![]() |
3 April 1884 | 24 June 1956 | dramatist, short-story writer, painter. | To Stravoxylo (The Peevish Fellow), O Skelethras Diegimata B (The Skeleton Short Stories'. Book 2) |
Gottfried Benn | ![]() |
2 May 1886 | 7 July 1956 | essayist, poet. | Morgue und andere Gedichte (Morgue and other Poems), Doppelleben (Double Life) |
Giovanni Papini | ![]() |
9 January 1881 | 8 July 1956 | novelist, short-story writer, philosopher. | Gog, Il crepuscolo dei filosofi (The Twilight of the Philosophers) |
Bertolt Brecht | ![]() |
10 February 1898 | 14 August 1956 | playwright, poet. | The Threepenny Opera, The Flight Across the Ocean |
Michael Ventris | ![]() |
12 July 1922 | 6 September 1956 | classics scholar, philologist. | Documents in Mycenaean Greek, Introducing the Minoan Language |
A. L. Zissu | ![]() |
25 January 1888 | 6 September 1956 | dramatist, essayist, novelist, polemicist. | Nu există cult mozaic (No Such Thing as a Mosaic Religion), Calea Calvarului (The Path of Calvary) |
Hans Carossa | ![]() |
15 December 1878 | 12 September 1956 | novelist, poet. | Stella Mystica, Ungleiche Welten (Unequal Worlds) |
Pío Baroja | ![]() |
28 December 1872 | 30 October 1956 | novelist. | The Tree of Knowledge, Memorias de un Hombre de Acción (Memories of a Man of Action) |
Pío Baroja | ![]() |
28 December 1872 | 30 October 1956 | novelist. | The Tree of Knowledge, Memorias de un Hombre de Acción (Memories of a Man of Action) |
B. R. Ambedkar | ![]() |
14 April 1891 | 6 December 1956 | economist, political writer, journal writer. | Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis and Development, The Buddha and His Dhamma |
Arthur Grimble | ![]() |
11 June 1888 | 13 December 1956 | travel writer, memoirist. | A Pattern of Islands, Return to the Islands |
Robert Walser | ![]() |
15 April 1878 | 25 December 1956 | novelist, poet, short-story writer. | Jakob von Gunten, Der Gehülfe (The Assistant) |
Entering the public domain in the United States
[edit]In the United States, the copyright status of works extends for the life of the author or artists, plus 70 years.[3][4] If the work is owned by a corporation, then the copyright extends 95 years.[5]
Due to the passing of the Copyright Term Extension Act (Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act) in 1998, no new works would enter the public domain in this jurisdiction until 2019.[6]
See also
[edit]- 1936 in literature and 1956 in literature for deaths of writers
- Public Domain Day
- Creative Commons
References
[edit]- ^ "EU Extends Copyright Term To 70 Years | Billboard". Billboard.biz. 2011-09-12. Archived from the original on 2013-01-06. Retrieved 2014-01-07.
- ^ Directive 2006/116/EC
- ^ "What Could Have Entered the Public Domain | Duke University School of Law".
- ^ "S.505 - One Hundred Fifth Congress of the United States of America at the Session Session. An act to amend the provisions of title 17, United States Code, with respect to the duration of copyright, and for other purposes" (PDF). U.S. Copyright Office.
- ^ "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States | Copyright Information Center".
- ^ "United States Copyright Law". Archived from the original on 2014-08-01. Retrieved 2012-06-02.