When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of creators whose works enter the public domain in 2021. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
With the exception of Belarus (where the copyright protection is life + 50 years)[1] and Spain (which has a copyright term of 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. For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator that entered the public domain on 1 January 2021.
| Names | Country | Birth | Death | Occupation | Notable work | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Octave-Louis Aubert | Writer, journalist | Le Livre de la Bretagne | ||||
| Irving Bacheller | Writer, journalist | Eben Holden | ||||
| Sergei Bakhrushin | Historian | |||||
| Miklós Bánffy |  Hungary | Nobleman, politician, writer | A Transylvanian Tale | |||
| Pavel Bazhov | Writer | The Malachite Box | ||||
| Max Beckmann |  Germany | Painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor | ||||
| William Rose Benét | Writer, poet, editor | Saturday Review of Literature, The Reader's Encyclopedia | ||||
| Lev Berg | Geographer, biologist and ichthyologist | |||||
| Ben Black | Composer, lyricist | "Moonlight and Roses" | ||||
| Léon Blum |  France | Politician | Les Problèmes de la Paix | |||
 Italy | General, Historian | Works | ||||
| D. K. Broster | Novelist | The Flight of the Heron | ||||
| Herbert Ashwin Budd | Painter | |||||
| Joe Burke | Songwriter, Composer, pianist | "Dancing With Tears in My Eyes", "Painting the Clouds With Sunshine", "Rambling Rose", "Tip-Toe Through the Tulips" | ||||
| Edgar Rice Burroughs | Author of adventure and science fiction | Tarzan and Barsoom | ||||
| J. Carlos | Cartoonist, illustrator, graphic designer, sculptor | |||||
| Basilio Cascella | Artist | |||||
| Alfonso Daniel Rodríguez Castelao |  Spain | Painter | ||||
| Neville William Cayley |  Australia | Ornithologist & artist | "What Bird is That?", 1931 | |||
| Francesco Cilea | Composer | L'arlesiana and Adriana Lecouvreur | ||||
| Leôncio Correia (pt) | Lawyer, politician, writer and journalist | |||||
| Erle Cox | Australia | Journalist and science fiction writer | Out of the Silence | |||
| Walter Damrosch | Composer | |||||
| Frank Parker Day |  Canada | Author and academic | ||||
| Warwick Deeping | Author | Sorrell and Son | ||||
| Buddy DeSylva | Songwriter | Avalon, Look For the Silver Lining, Somebody Loves Me | ||||
| Edward d'Evry | Composer | |||||
| Lancelot de Mole | Australia | Engineer & inventor | Tracked armoured vehicle, 1911 | |||
| Clément Doucet |  Belgium | Composer, pianist | ||||
| Anatoly Drozdov (ru) | Composer, pianist | |||||
| Theodor Duesterberg | Germany | Politician | The Steel Helmet and Hitler | |||
| Walter Eucken | Germany | Economist | Works | |||
| Percy Keese Fitzhugh | Author of children and young adult literature | |||||
| Yevgeny Gunst | Composer | |||||
| John Gould Fletcher | Poet | Selected Poems | ||||
| Ernest Haycox | Author of Western fiction | |||||
| John Rippiner Heath | Doctor, musician, composer | Three Macedonian Sketches | ||||
| William Hovgaard |  Denmark United States | Professor, Writer | Submarine Boats, The Voyages Of The Norsemen To America | |||
| Heydar Huseynov |  Azerbaijan | Philosopher | Dialectical Materialism | |||
| Rex Ingram | United States | Film director, producer, writer and actor | The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Prisoner of Zenda | |||
| George Cecil Ives | Writer, penal reformer | English Prisons Today | ||||
| Émile Jaques-Dalcroze | Composer, music educator | |||||
| Johannes V. Jensen | Denmark | Author | The Long Journey | |||
| Charles L. Johnson | United States | Composer | ||||
| Al Jolson | Songwriter | |||||
| Eddie Kilfeather | Composer | |||||
| Alfred Korzybski | United States | Engineer and founder of Institute of General Semantics | Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics | |||
| Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky | Writer | |||||
| Harold Laski | Political theorist, economist | A Grammar of Politics | ||||
| Harry Lauder | Comedian, Singer/songwriter | Roamin' in the Gloamin' | ||||
| Lilian Sophia Locke | Australia | Suffragette & Trade-unionist | Secretary of the United Council for Woman's Suffrage, 1890s | |||
| Heinrich Mann | Germany | Writer | Professor Unrat | |||
| Edgar Lee Masters | Writer | Spoon River Anthology | ||||
| F. O. Matthiessen | literary critic | American Renaissance: Art and Expression in the Age of Emerson and Whitman | ||||
| Marcel Mauss | Sociologist | The Gift | ||||
| Ernest John Moeran | Composer | |||||
| Alfred Edward Moffat | Composer, collector of music | Meister-Schule der alten Zeit | ||||
| Poet, playwright | Renascence | |||||
| Ali Moustafa Mosharafa |  Egypt | Theoretical physicist | ||||
| Lewis Muir | Songwriter | Ragtime Cowboy Joe | ||||
| Pavel Muratov | Writer, art historian | Images of Italy | ||||
| Nikolai Myaskovsky | Composer | Symphony No. 6 (Myaskovsky) | ||||
| Vaslav Nijinsky | Ballet dancer and choreographer | Diary | ||||
| George Orwell |  United Kingdom | Journalist and author | Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four also see George Orwell bibliography | |||
| Cesare Pavese | Italy | Writer, translator | The Moon and the Bonfires | |||
| Max Pemberton | Novelist of adventure and mystery literature | |||||
| Octávio Pinto | Composer, architect | |||||
| Ernest Poole | Writer | His Family | ||||
| Gustaf John Ramstedt |  Finland | Explorer, linguist, diplomat | Seitsemän retkeä itään | |||
| R. R. Ryan | United Kingdom | Author | ||||
| Eliel Saarinen | Finland United States | Architect | Works | |||
| Rafael Sabatini | Italy United Kingdom | Writer | The Sea Hawk, Scaramouche, The Odissey of Captain Blood, Bellarion the Fortunate | |||
| Theophrastos Sakellaridis |  Greece | Composer, conductor | Ο Βαφτιστικός | |||
| Guðjón Samúelsson |  Iceland | Architect | Hallgrímskirkja, National Theatre of Iceland, Akureyrarkirkja | |||
| Joseph Schumpeter |  Austria | Economist | Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy | |||
| Milton Schwarzwald | Director, composer | |||||
| George Bernard Shaw | United Kingdom Ireland | Writer | Man and Superman, Pygmalion, Saint Joan | |||
| Adaline Shepherd | Composer | |||||
| Forrest Shreve | Botanist | Works | ||||
| Martinus Sieveking |  Netherlands | Composer, music teacher | ||||
| Jan Smuts |  South Africa | Statesman, military leader, and philosopher | Holism and Evolution | |||
| John M. Stahl | United States | Film Director and Producer | Father Was a Fullback | |||
| Olaf Stapledon | United Kingdom | Philosopher and science fiction author | Star Maker, Last and First Men and Odd John | |||
| Henry L. Stimson | Politician | Democracy And Nationalism In Europe | ||||
| Tatiana Sukhotina-Tolstaya | Painter and memoirist | |||||
| Attilio Teruzzi | Italy | Politician | Cirenaica Verde | |||
| Trilussa | Poet | Works | ||||
| Orhan Veli Kanık |  Turkey | Poet | Garip, Collected Poems | |||
| Xavier Villaurrutia |  Mexico | Poet, Playwright | Works | |||
| Archibald P. Wavell | United Kingdom | General | Generals And Generalship | |||
| Kurt Weill | Germany | Composer | The Threepenny Opera | |||
| Yi Kwang-su | Writer, independence activist | Heartless |
Spain (for creators that died before 1987), Colombia and Equatorial Guinea have a copyright term of life + 80 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes one notable work that entered the public domain on 1 January 2021 for each creator.
| J.-H. Rosny aîné | Writer | The Quest for Fire | ||||
| 1871 | 1940 | Teacher, writer | ||||
| Manuel Azaña | 1880 | 1940 | Politician, political writer, Prime Minister | |||
| Julián Besteiro | 21 September 1870 | 27 September 1940 | ||||
| E. F. Benson | Writer, archaeologist | Mapp and Lucia | ||||
| Mikhail Bulgakov | Writer, playwright, medical doctor | The Master and Margarita | ||||
| 1 May 1864 | 25 November 1940 | Flamenco singer and guitarist | ||||
| Philip Francis Nowlan | Writer | Armageddon 2419 A.D. | ||||
| F. Scott Fitzgerald | Novelist, essayist, screenwriter, and short-story writer | This Side of Paradise, The Beautiful and Damned, The Great Gatsby and Tender Is the Night | ||||
| 1903 or 1907 | 28 June 1940 | Cartoonist | ||||
| 1884 | 1940 | Playwright | Bibliography | |||
| Louis J. Panella | Composer | |||||
| 1880 | 1940 | Businessman | ||||
| 1856 | 1940 | Musicologist, music critic | ||||
| María Vinyals | 1875 | 1940 | Publicist, essayist |
In Bangladesh, India, and Venezuela a work enters the public domain 60 years after the creator's death.
| Names | Country | Birth | Death | Occupation | Notable work | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vai. Mu. Kothainayaki Ammal |  India | Novelist | ||||
| Rajshekhar Basu | India | Chemist | ||||
| A. Chakravarti | India | Professor | ||||
| Indira Devi Chaudhurani | India | Musician | ||||
| Sudhindranath Dutta | India | Poet, journalist | ||||
| M. Raghava Iyengar | India | 1870 | 1960 | Literary scholar | ||
| Jigar Moradabadi | India | Poet | Yeh Hai Maikada | |||
| Bal Krishna Sharma Naveen | India | Poet, journalist, activist | ||||
| Kesari Balakrishna Pillai | India | Literary critic, journalist | Kesari | |||
| Nathuram Premi | India | Poet, publisher | ||||
| Navaratna Rama Rao | India | 1960 | Political leader, scholar | |||
| Sushila Samad | India | Poet, journalist | ||||
| Govind Sakharam Sardesai | India | Historian | ||||
| Sripada Krishnamurty Sastry | India | Poet | Mahamahopadhyaya | |||
| Kshitimohan Sen | India | Professor | ||||
| Acharya Chatursen Shastri | India | Writer | Dharamputra | |||
| Krishnalal Shridharani | India | Poet, playwright | ||||
| C. J. Thomas | India | Playwright, academic, artist |
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abdul Hosein Amini | 1902 | Theologian | Al-Ghadir | |||
| Rita Angus | 12 March 1908 | 25 January 1970 | Painter | Cass | ||
| Shmuel Yosef Agnon |  Israel | Writer | The Bridal Canopy | |||
| Fernando Arbello |  Puerto Rico | Musician | ||||
| Otto Baecker | Germany | Cinematographer | Gold | |||
| Archibald Baxter | 13 December 1881 | 10 August 1970 | Socialist, pacifist | We Will Not Cease | ||
| William Beaudine | Film director, actor | Boys Will Be Boys | ||||
| George Blair | United States | Film Director | ||||
| R. V. C. Bodley | Army officer, author | Algeria From Within | ||||
| Louise Bogan | Poet | Body of This Death | ||||
| Vera Brittain | Writer | Testament of Youth | ||||
| William J. Brown | United States | Architect | ||||
| Mohamed Fadhel Ben Achour |  Tunisia | Theologian | Works | |||
| Dulce Carman | 1883 | 1970 | Author | Neath the Maori Moon | ||
| Rudolf Carnap | Philosopher | Der Logische Aufbau der Welt | ||||
| Poet | Works | |||||
| Charles Cotton (geologist) | 24 February 1885 | 29 June 1970 | Geologist | Geomorphology of New Zealand | ||
| Mohamed Abdelaziz Djaït | 1886 | Theologian | Works | |||
| William Dobell | Australia | Artist | Mr Joshua Smith | |||
| Guy Endore | United States | Author, screenwriter | The Werewolf of Paris | |||
| E. M. Forster | United Kingdom | Writer | Works | |||
| Babbis Friis-Baastad |  Norway | Children's writer | Ikke ta Bamse | |||
| Erle Stanley Gardner | Author, lawyer | Perry Mason series of books | ||||
| Maurice Gemayel |  Lebanon | 1910 | Politician | Tripoli and Decentralization | ||
| L. Wolfe Gilbert | Songwriter | Down Yonder | ||||
| Rube Goldberg | Cartoonist, News reporter, Sculptor, Engineer | |||||
| John Gunther | Author | Death Be Not Proud | ||||
| Muhsin al-Hakim |  Iraq | 1889 | 1970 | Theologian | Minhaj as-Saleheen | |
| Alice Hamilton | Physician, research scientist | Industrial Poisons in the United States | ||||
| Lawren Harris | Canada | Painter | ||||
| Marlen Haushofer | Austria | Writer | ||||
| Erich Heckel | Artist | Roquairol | ||||
| Jimi Hendrix | Musician, singer-songwriter | "Purple Haze" | ||||
| Roman Ingarden | Philosopher | The Literary Work of Art | ||||
| Michał Kalecki |  Poland | Economist | Próba teorii koniunktury | |||
| William Archibald Mackintosh | Economist | Economic Problems Of The Prairie Provinces | ||||
| Leopoldo Marechal |  Argentina | Writer | Adam Buenosayres | |||
| François Mauriac | France | Writer | Thérèse Desqueyroux | |||
| Bruce McLaren | 30 August 1937 | 2 June 1970 | Racing car driver | |||
| Yukio Mishima | Novelist, playwright, poet, writer, essayist, critic | Works | ||||
| Gamal Abdel Nasser | Egypt | Politician | Philosophy of Revolution | |||
| Charles Olson | United States | Poet | Works | |||
| John Dos Passos | Novelist | U.S.A. trilogy | ||||
| Waldo Peirce | Painter | Legends of the Hudson | ||||
| Vladimir Propp | Folklorist | Morphology of the Tale | ||||
| Alf Prøysen | Norway | Musician, Writer, Composer | Works | |||
| Erich Maria Remarque | Novelist | All Quiet on the Western Front | ||||
| Ali Riahi | Musician | |||||
| Gonzalo Roig |  Cuba | Composer | Cecilia Valdés | |||
| Mark Rothko | 25 September 1903 | 25 February 1970 | Abstract painter | Black on Maroon | ||
| Bertrand Russell | Philosopher, mathematician | Principia Mathematica | ||||
| Nelly Sachs |  Sweden | Poet, Writer | Works | |||
| Ruth Sawyer | Writer | Roller Skates | ||||
| Slim Harpo | Blues Musician | I'm a King Bee | ||||
| William Stewart Wallace | Historian | Encyclopedia of Canada | ||||
| Hassan Taqizadeh | Politician | Old Iranian Calendars | ||||
| Sophie Treadwell | Playwright | Machinal | ||||
| Jacob Viner | Economist | Works | ||||
| Otto Heinrich Warburg | Physiologist | The Metabolism of Tumours | ||||
| Leonard Wild | 28 October 1889 | 23 July 1970 | Agricultural scientist, writer | An Experiment in Self-government, Soils and Manures in New Zealand | ||
| Harry M. Woods | Songwriter | When the Red, Red Robin (Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along) | ||||
| Abraham Zapruder | 15 May 1905 | 30 August 1970 | Clothing manufacturer | Zapruder film | ||
| Mahmoud Zulfikar | Director |
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 America and the European Union. However, the change was not made retroactive (unlike the 1995 change in the European Union which brought the works of those who died from 1925 to 1944 back into copyright). 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).
Unpublished works by authors who died in 1950 entered the public domain.[2] Any published literary, artistic, dramatic, or musical work (other than computer programs) by a not generally known author (anonymous or pseudonymous) from 1950 also entered the public domain.
| Names | Country | Birth | Death | Occupation | Notable work | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyril Tenison White | Australia | Botanist/Explorer | Made significant contributions to knowledge of the flora of Queensland and northern New South Wales, and was regarded as an authority on tropical plants. | |||
| Erle Cox | Australia | Writer | "Out of the Silence" | |||
| Dame Mary Cook | Australia | 1863 | Social Work | Vice President of the "War Chest Society" and President of the "Parramatta Branch of the Red Cross Society" | ||
| Frank Brennan | Australia | 1873 | Politician | Noted Pacifist | ||
| Ted Colson | Australia | Anthropologist | Crossing of the Simpson Desert | |||
| Ian Morrison | Australia | Journalist | "This War against Japan : Thoughts on the Present Conflict in the Far East" 1944 | |||
| Andrew Oswald Wilson | Australia | Architect | Boulder Town Hall | |||
| George Ainsworth | Australia | Meteorologist & photographer | Leader of the Macquarie Island party of the Australian Antarctic Expedition, December 1911 to November 1913 | |||
| Neville William Cayley | Australia | Ornithologist & artist | "What Bird is That?", 1931 | |||
| Lilian Sophia Locke | Australia | Suffragette & Trade-unionist | Secretary of the United Council for Woman's Suffrage, 1890s | |||
| Lancelot de Mole | Australia | Engineer & inventor | Tracked armoured vehicle, 1911 | |||
| Ada May Plante | Australia | Painter | Founding exhibitor at Pioneering Post-Impressionist Melbourne Contemporary Group, 1932 | |||
| Beaumont Smith | Australia | Film director | "Our Friends the Hayseeds", 1917 | |||
| Horace Stevens | Australia | Opera singer | Samuel Coleridge Taylor's "Hiawatha" London premiere, 1924 | |||
| Clas Edvard Friström | Australia | Painter | Exhibited 53 paintings with the Queensland Art Society, 1899-1902 | |||
| Constance Elizabeth Darcy | Australia | Gynaecologist | Member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, London | |||
| Gustavus Athol Waterhouse | Australia | Entomologist | "The butterflies of Australia", 1914 and "What butterfly is that? A guide to the butterflies of Australia", 1932 | |||
| Alexandrine Seager | Australia | Businessperson | Founded the Cheer-Up Society to provide comfort and entertainment for World War One soldiers | |||
| Ted Theodore | Australia | Politician | State president, Queensland Australian Workers' Union |
See also: Public domain in the United States. Under the Copyright Term Extension Act,books published in 1925,films released in 1925,and other works published in 1925, entered the public domain in 2021.[3] Additionally, unpublished works whose authors died in 1950 entered the public domain.
No sound recordings entered the public domain; under the Music Modernization Act, those published in 1925 will not enter the public domain until 2026.[4] However, all musical compositions published in 1925 entered the public domain in 2021.
Notable books that entered the public domain in 2021 in the United States include The Great Gatsby, Mrs Dalloway, the original German-language version of The Trial, An American Tragedy, The Secret of Chimneys, In Our Time, and Arrowsmith.[5]