When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2012. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform. Not all works in the public domain have been expired, some works are deliberately donated into the collection for the public good by their owners.[1][2]
Entering the public domain in Europe
editIn most European nations with the exception of Belarus, copyright law extends for the life of the author or artist, plus 70 years.[3]
Authors
edit- Sherwood Anderson
- Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga
- Elizabeth von Arnim
- Raffaello Bertieri
- Simon Dubnow
- Adriano Tilgher
- Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva
- Hugh Walpole
- Virginia Woolf
- James Joyce
- Tariro Musindo
Film
editMusic
edit- Frank Bridge
- Arkady Gaidar
- Amalia Guglielminetti
- Alter Kacyzne
- Gustav Gerson Kahn
- Adolf Koczirz
- Jelly Roll Morton
Other notable figures
edit- Edward Bausch
- Henri Bergson
- Frederick Banting
- Robert Baden-Powell
- John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum
- Louis Brandeis
- August Cesarec
- Louis-Joseph Chevrolet
- Robert Delaunay
- James Frazer
- Tullio Levi-Civita
- Lazar Markovich Lissitzky
- George Minne
- Gaetano Mosca
- Ignacy Jan Paderewski
- Kole Nedelkovski
- Wilhelm II
- Petar Poparsov
- Giuseppe Rensi
- Rabindranath Tagore
- Santiago Rusiñol
Brazil
editEntering the public domain in the United States
editIn the United States, the copyright status of works extends for the life of the author or artists, plus 70 years.[4][5] If the work is owned by a corporation, then the copyright extends 95 years.[6]
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.[7]
In January 2012, the Supreme Court in a 6-2 decision stated that works in the public domain can have their copyright status renewed.[8]
See also
edit- List of countries' copyright lengths
- Public Domain Day
- Creative Commons
- Public Domain
- 1961 in literature for death writers
- Over 300 public domain authors available in Wikisource (any language), with descriptions from Wikidata
External links
editReferences
edit- ^ "The Public Domain in Copyright Law".
- ^ "Find the Best Free PC Games on These Sites!". Archived from the original on 2013-01-03. Retrieved 2012-06-02.
- ^ "Billboard Business". Archived from the original on 2013-01-06. Retrieved 2012-06-03.
- ^ "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 Second 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". copyright.cornell.edu. Retrieved 2021-09-28.
- ^ "United States Copyright Law". Archived from the original on 2014-08-01. Retrieved 2012-06-02.
- ^ Liptak, Adam (19 January 2012). "Public Domain Works Can be Copyrighted Anew, Supreme Court Rules". The New York Times.