When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2008. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
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, 2008.
| Names | Country | Birth | Death | Occupation | Notable work | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| J. M. Barrie | novelist, playwright. | The Little White Bird, Peter and Wendy | ||||
| Julian Bell | poet, book editor. | Winter Movement, Work for the Winter | ||||
| Jean de Brunhoff | children's writer, illustrator. | The Story of Babar, Babar and Father Christmas | ||||
| Ellis Parker Butler | short story writer, essayist. | Pigs Is Pigs, Philo Gubb, The Correspondence School Detective | ||||
| Ralph Connor | novelist. | Black Rock, a Tale of the Selkirks, The Gay Crusader | ||||
| Frederic Taber Cooper | magazine editor, historian. | Word formation in the Roman Sermo Plebeius. An historical study of the development of vocabulary in vulgar and late Latin, with special reference to the Romance languages, History of the Nineteenth Century in Caricature | ||||
| John Drinkwater | poet, dramatist. | Abraham Lincoln, The Death of Leander | ||||
| Florence Dugdale | children's writer, biographer. | The Book of Baby Birds, The Later Years of Thomas Hardy, 1892–1928 | ||||
| Edward Garnett | writer, critic, literary editor. | The Breaking Point, a Censured Play. With Preface and a Letter to the Censor, The great war in 1916, a neutral's indictment | ||||
| Ivor Gurney | poet, composer. | Five Elizabethan Songs , The Western Playland | ||||
| Elizabeth Haldane | biographer, philosopher. | From One Century to Another: The Reminiscences of Elizabeth S. Haldane, The Scotland of our Fathers: A Study of Scottish Life in the Nineteenth Century | ||||
| W. F. Harvey | horror fiction writer. | August Heat, Midnight House and Other Tales | ||||
| William F. Lloyd | journalist, newspaper editor. | editor of The Telegram | ||||
| H. P. Lovecraft | writer of weird fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction. | The Call of Cthulhu, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath | ||||
| Don Marquis | humorist, novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright. | The Dark Hours, archy and mehitabel | ||||
| H. C. McNeile |  United Kingdom | writer of thrillers and war stories. | Bulldog Drummond, The Black Gang | |||
| Chūya Nakahara | poet, translator. | Goat Songs, Songs of Bygone Days | ||||
| Tomas O'Crohan | diarist, memoirist. | Island Cross-Talk, The Islandman | ||||
| Horacio Quiroga | playwright, poet, short story writer. | Stories of Love, Madness, and Death, Jungle Tales | ||||
| Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo | poet, novelist, opera writer, literary critic, journal editor. | The Cup of Ashes, The Red Dawn | ||||
| Albert Verwey | poet, translator, literary historian. | Persephone | ||||
| Edith Wharton | novelist, short story writer. | The Age of Innocence, The House of Mirth |
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sholem Asch |  Poland | dramatist, essayist, novelist. | In a Bad Time, God of Vengeance | |||
| Arturo Barea |  Spain | autobiographer, radio broadcaster. | The Forging of a Rebel, Struggle for the Spanish Soul | |||
| Roy Campbell |  South Africa | literary critic, poet, satirist, translator. | The Wayzgoose: A South African Satire, The Georgiad – A Satirical Fantasy in Verse | |||
| Joyce Cary |  Ireland | poet, short story writer. | Mister Johnson, The Horse's Mouth | |||
| A. E. Coppard | United Kingdom | poet, short story writer. | Fearful Pleasures, Nixey's Harlequin | |||
| William Craigie | United Kingdom | lexicographer, philologist. | editor for the Oxford English Dictionary, founding editor of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue | |||
| Alfred Döblin |  Germany | essayist, novelist. | Berlin Alexanderplatz, The Three Leaps of Wang Lun | |||
| Lord Dunsany | Ireland | short story writer, playwright, novelist, poet. | The King of Elfland's Daughter, The Gods of Pegāna | |||
| May Edginton | United Kingdom | novelist, playwright. | Secrets, The Prude's Fall | |||
| Ernest Elmore | United Kingdom | crime novelist, fantasy writer. | The Lake District Murder, The Cornish Coast Murder | |||
| Rose Fyleman | United Kingdom | children's writer, playwright, poet, translator. | There are fairies at the bottom of our garden, Lift your hidden faces | |||
| Oliver St. John Gogarty | Ireland | playwright, oet. | Blight, As I Was Going Down Sackville Street | |||
| Barbu Lăzăreanu |  Romania | bibliographer, literary historian, satirist. | Constantin Radovici, Agatha Bârsescu, Nora Marinescu, Slabs and Debris from Epidaurus' Temple | |||
| José Lins do Rego |  Brazil | novelist. | Menino de engenho (Plantation boy), Pureza | |||
| Malcolm Lowry | United Kingdom | novelist, poet. | Under the Volcano, Ultramarine | |||
| Curzio Malaparte |  Italy | filmmaker, war correspondent. | Kaputt, The Skin | |||
| Mait Metsanurk |  Estonia | novelist, short story writer, playwright. | Ümera jõel (On the Ümera River), Uues korteris | |||
| Gabriela Mistral |  Chile | poet. | Sonetos de la Muerte (Sonnets of Death), Despair | |||
| Christopher Morley |  United States | essayist, journalist, novelist, poet. | Parnassus on Wheels, The Haunted Bookshop | |||
| Mulshankar Mulani | playwright. | Saubhagya Sundari, Barrister | ||||
| John Middleton Murry | United Kingdom | essayist, literary critic. | God: An Introduction to the Science of Metabiology, Katherine Mansfield and Other Literary Portraits | |||
| Leo Perutz |  Austria | horror novelist, mathematician. | From Nine to Nine, The Master of the Day of Judgement | |||
| Rhoda Power | United Kingdom | children's writer, historical novelist. | Redcap Runs Away, From the Fury of the Northmen: and Other Stories That Shaped Our Destiny in 18th to 19th Century England | |||
| Dorothy Richardson | United Kingdom | novelist, journalist. | Pilgrimage, Pointed Roofs | |||
| Kenneth Roberts | United States | historical novelist. | Northwest Passage, Lydia Bailey | |||
| Dorothy L. Sayers | United Kingdom | crime novelist, literary critic, playwright, poet, translator. | The Nine Tailors, Whose Body? | |||
| Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa | Italy | historical novelist. | The Leopard, The Professor and the Siren | |||
| Stanley Vestal | United States | biographer, historian, novelist. | Kit Carson, the Happy Warrior of the West, Sitting Bull-Champion of the Sioux-a Biography | |||
| Laura Ingalls Wilder | United States | novelist, journalist. | Little House in the Big Woods, Little House on the Prairie | |||
| Alfred Eckhard Zimmern | United Kingdom | classical scholar, historian, political scientist. | The Greek Commonwealth: Politics and Economics in Fifth Century Athens, The Third British Empire |
See also: Public domain in the United States. 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]