When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2019. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
With the exception of Spain (which has a copyright term of Life + 80 years for creators that died before 1987), a work enters the public domain in the European Union 70 years after the creator's death, if it was published during the creator's lifetime.[1] [2] For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years. Russia uses Life + 74 for authors who worked during World War II, otherwise copyright is Life + 70.[3] The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator that entered the public domain on January 1, 2019.
| Names | Country | Birth | Death | Occupation | Notable work |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alexander Aaronsohn | 1888 | 1948 | Author | With the Turks in Palestine | |
| Sabahattin Ali |  Turkey | Novelist | §Works | ||
| Francisco Alonso |  Spain | Composer | Las Leandras | ||
| Carl Thomas Anderson |  United States | Cartoonist | Henry | ||
| Antonin Artaud |  France | Dramatist | §Works | ||
| Kan'ichi Asakawa |  Japan | Historian | The Russo-Japanese Conflict: Its Causes and Issues | ||
| Gertrude Atherton | United States | Novelist | §Works | ||
| Jatindramohan Bagchi |  India | Poet | |||
| Milan Begović |  Croatia | Writer | Pustolov pred vratima | ||
| Hulusi Behçet | Turkey | Physician | Clinical and Practical Syphilis, Diagnosis and Related Dermatoses | ||
| Ruth Benedict | United States | Anthropologist | The Chrysanthemum and the Sword | ||
| Frank Benford | United States | Physicist | The law of anomalous numbers | ||
| Gertrude Barrows Bennett | United States | Writer of science fiction and fantasy | The Citadel of Fear, The Heads of Cerberus, Claimed | ||
| Nikolai Berdyaev | Philosopher | §Works | |||
| Folke Bernadotte |  Sweden | Diplomat, nobleman | §Works | ||
| Georges Bernanos | France | Writer | The Diary of a Country Priest | ||
| Hendrik van der Bijl |  South Africa | Engineer | Theory and Operating Characteristics of the Thermionic Amplifier | ||
| Nasib al-Bitar | Jurist | Al-Fareeda Fi Hisab Al-Fareedhah | |||
| André Bloch | Mathematician | La conception actuelle de la theorie des fonctions entieres et meromorphes | |||
| Joseph Friedrich Nicolaus Bornmüller |  Germany | Botanist | Beiträge zur Flora Mazedoniens | ||
| Gordon Bottomley |  United Kingdom | Poet, playwright | The Crier By Night | ||
| Harry Brearley | United Kingdom | Metallurgist | Knotted String | ||
| Sophonisba Breckinridge | United States | Economist, social scientist | Marriage and the Civic Rights of Women | ||
| Robert Briffault | Anthropologist, novelist | The Mothers: A Study of the Origins of Sentiments and Institutions | |||
| Abraham Brill | Psychiatrist | Psychoanalysis: Its Theories and Practical Application | |||
| Alice Brown | United States | Writer | §Works | ||
| Subhadra Kumari Chauhan | India | Poet | Jhansi Ki Rani | ||
| Hiram Alfred Cody |  Canada | Writer, Clergyman | The Frontiersman: A Tale of the Yukon | ||
| Umberto Coromaldi |  Italy | Painter | Happy Mother | ||
| Osamu Dazai | Japan | Author | The Setting Sun, No Longer Human | ||
| Mary Angela Dickens | United Kingdom | Writer | Cross Currents | ||
| Dildar | Poet | Ey Reqîb | |||
| Janus Djurhuus | Poet | ||||
| Lawrence Donovan | United States | Novelist and pulp fiction author | |||
| Rheta Childe Dorr | United States | Journalist, Suffragist | What Eight Million Women Want | ||
| O. Douglas | United Kingdom | Author | Olivia in India | ||
| Sergei Eisenstein | Film Director | Battleship Potemkin | |||
| Pompeu Fabra | Spain | Grammarian | Diccionari General de la Llengua Catalana | ||
| Ferdinand I of Bulgaria | King of Bulgaria (1887–1918), author, botanist, entomologist | ||||
| Jacques Feyder |  Belgium | Film Director, screenwriter, | Crainquebille | ||
| William Arms Fisher | United States | Composer, writer | |||
| Zelda Fitzgerald | United States | Novelist | Save Me the Waltz | ||
| Gustaf Fjæstad | Sweden | Artist | |||
| Karl Gebhardt | Germany | Doctor | Chirurgische krankengymnastik | ||
| Umberto Giordano | Italy | Composer | Andrea Chénier | ||
| Susan Glaspell | United States | Playwright, novelist | Trifles | ||
| Arshile Gorky | United States | Painter | The Liver is the Cock's Comb | ||
| D. W. Griffith | United States | Film director, producer | The Birth of a Nation, Broken Blossoms | ||
| Alexander Alfonsovich Grossheim |  Ukraine | Botanist | |||
| Frederick Philip Grove | Germany Canada | Writer, translator | Settlers of the Marsh | ||
| Uzeyir Hajibeyov | Composer | Leyli and Majnun | |||
| Thomas William Hanforth | United Kingdom | Composer | |||
| Ernest George Henham | United Kingdom | Writer | Furze the Cruel | ||
| Ernst Herzfeld | Germany | Archaeologist | Die Ausgrabungen von Samarra | ||
| Johan Hjort |  Norway | Marine Biologist | The Depths of the Ocean | ||
| Seth Hoffman | United States | Artist | |||
| Vicente Huidobro | Poet | Altazor o el viaje en paracaídas | |||
| Victor Ido |  Indonesia | Writer, journalist | De paupers | ||
| William Henry Irwin | United States | Journalist, writer | The House That Shadows Built | ||
| Susan Sutherland Isaacs | United Kingdom | Psychologist | Intellectual Growth in Young Children | ||
| Hédi Khayachi | 1882 | 1948 | Painter | ||
| Kan Kikuchi | Japan | Novelist | Tōjūrō no Koi | ||
| Egon Kisch |  Czech Republic | Journalist, writer | Schreib das auf, Kisch! | ||
| August Köhler | Germany | Physicist | Gedanken zu einem neuen Beleuchtungsverfahren für mikrophotographische Zwecke | ||
| Friedrich Freiherr Kress von Kressenstein | Germany | General | Mit dem Turken zum Suezkanal | ||
| Nikolai Yakovlevich Kuznetsov | Entomologist | The Eurasian Arctic Fauna and Its Origin | |||
| Franz Lehár | Composer | List of operas and operettas | |||
| Rudolf Franz Lehnert | Germany | Photographer | |||
| Maximilian Lenz |  Austria | Artist | A World, A Song of Spring | ||
| Monteiro Lobato |  Brazil | Novelist, publisher | Sítio do Picapau Amarelo (novel series) | ||
| Ross Lockridge Jr. | United States | Novelist | Raintree County | ||
| Emil Ludwig | Germany | Biographer | Bismarck | ||
| Edith Balfour Lyttelton | United Kingdom | Writer, spiritualist | |||
| Nikola Marinov | Painter | ||||
| Jan Masaryk | Politician | Speaking to My Country | |||
| Ilya Mashkov | Painter | ||||
| A. E. W. Mason | United Kingdom | Author, politician | The Four Feathers | ||
| Gerardo Matos Rodríguez |  Uruguay | Composer | La cumparsita | ||
| Claude McKay |  Jamaica | Writer | |||
| Ernest Merritt | United States | Physicist, educator | |||
| Kerry Mills | United States | Composer | |||
| Harry A. Millis | United States | Economist | |||
| Wesley Clair Mitchell | United States | Economist | The Role of Money in Economic Theory | ||
| Thomas Mofolo |  Lesotho | Writer | Chaka | ||
| Prosper Montagné | France | Chef, Gastronome | Larousse Gastronomique | ||
| Sylvanus Morley | United States | Archeologist | The Ancient Maya | ||
| Baldassarre Negroni | Italy | Film director | The Courier of Moncenisio | ||
| Fred Niblo | United States | Film Director, actor | Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ | ||
| Alan Odle | United Kingdom | 1888 | 1948 | Illustrator | |
| Edith Olivier | United Kingdom | Writer | Alexander the Corrector: The Eccentric Life of Alexander Cruden | ||
| Conal Holmes O'Connell O'Riordan |  Ireland | Dramatist, novelist | Adam of Dublin | ||
| Margaret Pedler | United Kingdom | 1877 | Romance Author | Barbarian Lover | |
| John J. Pershing | United States | General | My Experiences in the World War | ||
| Albert Pollard | United Kingdom | Historian | The Evolution of Parliament | ||
| Manuel Ponce |  Mexico | Composer | Estrellita | ||
| Abram Ranovich | Historian | On Early Christianity | |||
| Charles Herbert Reilly | United Kingdom | Architect | Representative British Architects of the Present Day | ||
| Charles Grant Robertson | United Kingdom | 1869 | Historian, novelist | England under the Hanoverians | |
| J.-H. Rosny jeune | Belgium France | Writer | |||
| Sultanzade Sabahaddin | Sociologist | The Witness | |||
| Husain Salaahuddin | Writer | The Story of Thakurufaan the Great | |||
| Maria Olga de Moraes Sarmento da Silveira |  Portugal | Writer, feminist | Problema Feminista | ||
| Kurt Schwitters | Germany | Artist | Das Undbild | ||
| Antonin Sertillanges | France | Priest, author | What Jesus Saw from the Cross | ||
| Lamed Shapiro | United States | 1948 | Author | Di yidishe melukhe un andere zakhn | |
| D. D. Sheehan | Ireland | Politician, author | Ireland since Parnell | ||
| David Shterenberg | Painter and graphic artist | §Works | |||
| Charles Silvestre | France | Novelist | §Works | ||
| Annie M. P. Smithson | 26 September 1873 | 21 February 1948 | Author, nurse. | The Walk of a Queen | |
| Marjory Stephenson | Biochemist | ||||
| Montague Summers | Author and clergyman | Malleus Maleficarum | |||
| Alexander du Toit | South Africa | Geologist | Our Wandering Continents; An Hypothesis of Continental Drifting | ||
| Richard C. Tolman | United States | Physicist | The Principles of Statistical Mechanics | ||
| Karl Valentin | Germany | Comedian | §Works | ||
| José Vianna da Motta | Portugal | Pianist, composer | §Works | ||
| Franco Vittadini | Italy | Composer | Anima Allegra | ||
| Augusto Weberbauer | Germany | Botanist | Die Pflanzenwelt der peruanischen Anden in ihren Grundzügen | ||
| Paul Wegener | Germany | Film Director, screenwriter | The Student of Prague | ||
| Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari | Composer | Il segreto di Susanna | |||
| George MacKinnon Wrong | Canada | Historian | The Conquest of New France | ||
| Muhammad Amin Zaki |  Iraq | 1880 | 1948 | Historian | A Short History of the Kurds and Kurdistan |
| Andrei Zhdanov | Politician | Советская литература, Стахановцы настоящие большевики производства | |||
In most countries of Africa and Asia, as well as Belarus, Bolivia, Canada, New Zealand and Uruguay; a work enters the public domain 50 years after the creator's death.
See also: Copyright law of Australia.
In 2004 copyright in Australia changed from a "plus 50" law to a "plus 70" law, in line with the United States and the European Union. But the change was not made retroactive (unlike the 1995 change in the European Union which brought some e.g. British authors back into copyright, especially those who died from 1925 to 1944). Hence the work of an author who died before 1955 is normally in the public domain in Australia; but the copyright of authors was extended to 70 years after death for those who died in 1955 or later, and no more Australian authors will come out of copyright until 1 January 2026 (those who died in 1955).
On January 1, 2019, any unpublished work by an author who died in 1948 or before entered the public domain.[4] Additionally, any published literary, artistic, dramatic, or musical work (other than computer programs) by a not generally known author (anonymous or pseudonymous) from 1948 or before entered the public domain.
See also: Public domain in the United States. 2019 was the first year since 1998 in which the majority of media from a previous year entered the public domain after the expiration of its copyright term.[5] 2019 is also the first year in this annual process, where 1923 works become public domain that year, then 1924 works in 2020, and so on forward.[5]
Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books, films, and other works published in the United States in 1923 entered the public domain in 2019.[6] Additionally, unpublished works whose authors died in 1948 entered the public domain. Foreign works from 1923 that were never published in the United States may be in the public domain as well.[7] This was the first time since January 1, 1998, that a new group of works entered the public domain in the United States. From now on, works governed by the Copyright Act of 1909 will enter the public domain at the end of the 95th calendar year from publication. For example, 1924 works entered the public domain on January 1, 2020, 1925 works in 2021, and so forth.
No United States audio recordings entered the public domain (as those fixed before February 15, 1972 were covered by state laws only), but international audio recordings published in 1923 entered the public domain in 2019. Under the Music Modernization Act, 1923 domestic audio recordings entered the public domain in 2024. However, all sheet music published in 1923 in the United States entered the public domain in 2019.
Some of the works that entered public domain are The Great American Novel by William Carlos Williams, Charlie Chaplin's The Pilgrim, Harold Lloyd's Safety Last!, Robert Frost's Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie, Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments, Aldous Huxley's Antic Hay, and the first 2 volumes of Winston Churchill’s The World Crisis.[5] While Christie, Huxley, and Churchill were all non-American authors, these works were also published in the United States and their copyright was registered and renewed.[8] Hence, copyright expired in 2019.
On January 24th 2019 it was announced that Nina Paley was placing her 2018 film Seder-Masochism in the public domain.[9]
Switzerland
Argentina
Netherlands
Denmark
New Zealand
Australia
China