2025 in public domain explained

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 2025. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.

Countries with life + 70 years

With the exception of Belarus (Life + 50 years) 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 For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years.

Names	Country	Birth	Death	Occupation	Notable work
Franco Alfano	Italy			Composer	List of operas by Franco Alfano
Ahmad Amin	Egypt			Writer	Dawn of Islam
Oswald de Andrade	Brazil			Writer	Manifesto Antropófago
Bruno Angoletta	Italy			Cartoonist	Marmittone
Peter van Anrooy	Netherlands			Composer	Piet Hein Rhapsodie voor symfonieorkest
John L. Balderston	United States			Playwright	Berkeley Square, Dracula
Lionel Barrymore	United States			Actor, film director	Lionel Barrymore on stage, screen and radio
Jacinto Benavente	Spain			Writer	The Unloved Woman
Frans G. Bengtsson	Sweden			Writer	The Long Ships
Hakon Børresen	Denmark			Composer	Den Kongelige Gæst
Vitaliano Brancati	Italy			Writer	Don Giovanni in Sicilia
Walter Braunfels	Germany			Composer	Die Vögel
Claude Cahun	France			Photographer, writer	Disavowals or Cancelled Confessions
Robert Capa	Hungary			Photographer	The Falling Soldier
	Italy			Writer	Works
Papa Celestin	United States			Musician	Papa Celestin's Golden Wedding
Colette	France			Writer	Gigi
Julian Coolidge	United States			Mathematician	A Treatise on the Circle and the Sphere
Stig Dagerman	Sweden			Writer, journalist	A Burnt Child
Jibanananda Das	India			Poet	Banalata Sen
André Derain	France			Painter, sculptor	Mountains at Collioure
Carl Eldh	Sweden			Sculptor	The Branting Monument
Leonard Eugene Dickson	United States			Mathematician, writer	History of the Theory of Numbers
Enrico Fermi	Italy/ United States			Physicist	Publications
Arthur Fickenscher	United States			Composer and academic	Willowwood
Bud Fisher	United States			Cartoonist	Mutt and Jeff
Miles Franklin	Australia			Writer	My Brilliant Career
Wilhelm Furtwängler	Germany			Conductor, composer	Symphony No. 2
E. Ray Goetz	United States			Composer, lyricist	"For Me and My Gal"
Heinz Guderian	Germany			Military officer, writer	Achtung – Panzer!, Panzer Leader
Niqula Haddad	Lebanon	1878	1954	Writer
Jack Harvey	United States			Film director	A Dog's Love
Ferenc Herczeg	Hungary			Writer	A Gyurkovics-lányok
James Hilton	United Kingdom			Writer	Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Lost Horizon
Raymond Hubbell	United States			Composer, lyricist	"Poor Butterfly"
Charles Ives	United States			Composer	List of compositions by Charles Ives
Hans Janowitz	Germany			Screenwriter	The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Norbert Jacques	Germany			Writer	Dr. Mabuse
Arthur Johnston	United States			Composer	"Cocktails for Two", "Pennies from Heaven"
Frida Kahlo	Mexico			Painter	List of paintings by Frida Kahlo
Mikhas Klimkovich	Belarus			Poet	"My Belarusy"
Kalki Krishnamurthy	India			Writer	Ponniyin Selvan
Henri Laurens	France			Sculptor	L'Amphion
Alphonse Laverrière	Switzerland			Architect	Bois-de-Vaux Cemetery
Alain LeRoy Locke	United States			Writer	The New Negro
Achille Longo	Italy			Composer	Compositions
Gino Loria	Italy			Mathematician	Books
William March	United States			Writer	Company K
Henri Matisse	France			Painter, sculptor	List of works by Henri Matisse
Joe May	United States			Film director	Stuart Webbs
George McManus	United States			Cartoonist	Bringing Up Father
Zofia Nałkowska	Poland			Writer	Medallions
Martin Andersen Nexø	Denmark			Writer	Pelle the Conqueror
Herms Niel	Germany			Composer	"Erika"
Auguste Perret	France			Architect	Théâtre des Champs-Élysées
Washington Phillips	United States			Singer	List of songs recorded by Washington Phillips
Fred Raymond	Austria			Composer	"I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg", Maske in Blau
Fred Rose	United States			Songwriter	"Be Honest with Me"
Oscar Straus	Austria			Composer	Ein Walzertraum
Getúlio Vargas	Brazil			Politician	Carta Testamento
Alan Turing	United Kingdom			Mathematician	Turing's proof
William Van Alen	United States			Architect	Chrysler Building
Dziga Vertov				Film director	Man with a Movie Camera
Thea von Harbou	Germany			Writer, film director	List of works by Thea von Harbou
Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen	Germany			Composer	Oberst Chabert
Hella Wuolijoki	Finland			Writer	Entäs nyt, Niskavuori?
Francis Brett Young	United Kingdom			Writer	List of novels of Francis Brett Young
Zhang Shichuan	China	1890	1954	Film director	Laborer's Love

Countries with life + 60 years

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
Bharathidasan	India			Poet	"Tamil Thai Valthu"
Birinchi Kumar Barua	India			Scholar, writer
Carlos Brandt				Writer
Guru Dutt	India			Film director	Pyaasa
Mushtaq Hussain Khan	India	1878		Musician
Jawaharlal Nehru	India			Politician	An Autobiography

Countries with life + 50 years

In most countries of Africa and Asia, as well as Belarus, Bolivia and New Zealand, a work enters the public domain 50 years after the creator's death.

Names	Country	Birth	Death	Occupation	Notable work
Jean Absil	Belgium			Composer
Gilbert Archey	New Zealand			Zoologist	The Moa, a Study of the Dinornithiformes
Miguel Ángel Asturias	Guatemala			Poet-diplomat	El Señor Presidente
Farid al-Atrash	Egypt	1917		Composer
Kurt Atterberg	Sweden			Composer	Compositions
H. E. Bates	United Kingdom			Writer	The Darling Buds of May
Erick Berry	United States		February 1974	Writer	The Winged Girl of Knossos
Bobby Bloom	United States			Singer-songwriter	"Montego Bay"
Hector Bolitho	New Zealand			Writer	Albert the Good and the Victorian Reign
Buddhadeb Bosu	Bangladesh	1908	1974	Writer
Nellie Coad	New Zealand			Teacher, writer
Phillis Emily Cunnington	United Kingdom			Physician, historian	Handbook of English Mediaeval Costume
Maurice Duggan	New Zealand			Writer	Summer in the Gravel Pit
Duke Ellington	United States			Composer	Duke Ellington discography
Julius Evola	Italy			Philosopher	Revolt Against the Modern World
Allal al-Fassi	Morocco			Writer	The Independence Movements in Arab North Africa
Dorothy Fields	United States			Film lyricist	"The Way You Look Tonight"
Louise Fitzhugh	United States			Writer	Harriet the Spy
Georgette Heyer	United Kingdom			Writer	List of works by Georgette Heyer
Ali Ismael	Egypt			Composer	Fida'i
Marie Luise Kaschnitz	Germany			Writer	Menschen und Dinge 1945
Erich Kästner	Germany			Poet, screenwriter	Emil and the Detectives
Muhammad Ayub Khan	Pakistan			Politician	Books
Pär Lagerkvist	Sweden			Writer	Barabbas
Eve Langley	New Zealand			Writer	The Pea-Pickers
Eric Linklater	United Kingdom			Writer, poet	The Wind on the Moon
Walter Lippmann	United States			Writer	Public Opinion
Margaret MacPherson	New Zealand			Writer, journalist	A Symposium Against War
P. Schuyler Miller	United States			Writer
Stanley Mullen	United States		1974	Artist, writer	Kinsmen of the Dragon
Leslie Munro	New Zealand			Politician, writer	United Nations: hope for a divided world
Douglas Robb	New Zealand	1899	1974	Physician, writer	Medical Odyssey
William Sloane	United States			Writer	To Walk the Night
Zaharia Stancu	Romania			Writer	Through the Ashes of the Empire
Sheila Stuart		1892	1974	Writer	Alison's Highland Holiday
Jacqueline Susann	United States			Writer	Valley of the Dolls
Sándor Szathmári	Hungary			Writer, mechanical engineer	Kazohinia
Robert Charles Zaehner	United Kingdom			Scholar	Zurvan, Mysticism, Our Savage God

Countries with life + 80 years

Spain has a copyright term of life + 80 years for creators that died before 1987. In Colombia and Equatorial Guinea a work enters the public domain 80 years after the creator's death.

Names	Country	Birth	Death	Occupation	Notable work
Enrique Díez Canedo	Spain			Poet
Joaquín Álvarez Quintero	Spain			Playwright
Antonio Videgain	Spain			Composer

Australia and Canada

See also: Copyright law of Australia and Copyright law of Canada.

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 (British and possibly other) 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).^[1]

Similarly, Canada amended its Copyright Act in 2022 from a "plus 50" law to a "plus 70" law, coming into force on December 30, 2022, but does not revive expired copyright.^{[2] [3]} No more new Canadian authors will come out of copyright until 1 January 2043 (those who died in 1972). Crown copyright was not changed, thus any government works published in 1974 will enter the public domain in 2025.^[4]

United States

See also: Public domain in the United States. Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books and other works published in 1929 and films released in 1929 will enter the public domain in 2025.^[5] Sound recordings that were published in 1924 will also enter the public domain.^[6] The characters Buck Rogers,^[7] Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar and Popeye the Sailor Man will enter the public domain in 2025.^[8] The same happens for the first Tarzan strips illustrated by Hal Foster that were launched in 1929.^[9]

Unpublished works whose authors died in 1954 will enter the public domain in 2025.

Among the films that will enter public domain in 2025 are the following:

• The Cocoanuts, the first film of the Marx Brothers
• The Broadway Melody, the second recipient of the Academy Award for Best Picture
• Spite Marriage, Buster Keaton's final full-length feature as a director
• Welcome Danger, Harold Lloyd's first sound film
• On with the Show!, the first sound film in color
• The Taming of the Shrew, the first Shakespeare film adaptation with sound
• Hallelujah, the first Hollywood film with an all-black cast
• The Cock-Eyed World, sequel to What Price Glory? (1926)
• Show Boat, containing some songs from the 1927 musical
• Blackmail, Alfred Hitchcock's first sound film
• Atlantic, the first sound film about the Titanic disaster
• The Return of Sherlock Holmes, the first sound film to star the character of Sherlock Holmes
• Behind That Curtain, the first sound film to star the character Charlie Chan
• The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu, the first sound film to star the character of Fu Manchu
• Bulldog Drummond, the first sound film to star the character Bulldog Drummond
• The Three Masks (Les trois masques), the first French sound film
• Land Without Women (Das Land ohne Frauen), the first German sound film
• Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond), directed by Fritz Lang
• Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) and Diary of a Lost Girl (Tagebuch einer Verlorenen), both directed by G. W. Pabst and starring Louise Brooks
• Drifters, a documentary film about Britain's North Sea herring fishery
• Un chien Andalou, directed by Luis Bunuel and cowritten by Salvador Dali
• The Mysteries of the Chateau of Dice (Les mystères du Château du Dé), directed by Man Ray
• Rain, a Dutch documentary short
• Sound versions of the Mickey Mouse cartoons The Gallopin' Gaucho, Plane Crazy and The Karnival Kid (in which Mickey speaks his first words), and the first Silly Symphony cartoons, including The Skeleton Dance.

Examples of important literary works entering the public domain include Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms, William Seabrook's novel The Magic Island (the first book to introduce the concept of a zombie). Ellery Queen's detective novel The Roman Hat Mystery, Margery Allingham detective novel The Crime at Black Dudley, the first English translation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Alfred Döblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz in its original German, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's novel Pather Panchali in its original Bengali, Lynd Ward's graphic novel Gods' Man, William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury, Virginia Woolf's essay A Room of One's Own, Ludwig Wittgenstein's essay Some Remarks on Logical Form and the first part of the 14th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (full in public domain by 2029).

Important artworks entering the public domain include René Magritte's painting The Treachery of Images, Salvador Dali's paintings The Great Masturbator and The Accommodations of Desire, Wassily Kandinsky's painting Upward, Edward Hopper's painting Chop Suey, Kawamura Kiyoo's painting Founding of the Nation, Julio Romero de Torres' painting La Fuensanta, August Sander's photograph Berlin Coal Carrier and the first design of the Barcelona chair.

See also

• 1954 in literature and 1974 in literature for deaths of writers
• Public Domain Day
• Creative Commons

External links

• • Web site: Authors by Year of Death – 1954. AuthorAndBookInfo.com.
• Popular Books of 1929 at Goodreads

Notes and References

1. Web site: How long does copyright last? . . 10 June 2020.
2. Web site: An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2022 and other measures . . 2022-06-23 . . 2022-11-28.
3. Web site: PC Number: 2022-1219 . . 2022-11-17 . . 2022-11-28.
4. Web site: Crown Copyright - FAQ . Government of Canada . www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca . 13 March 2024.
5. Web site: Copyright and the Public Domain . Public Domain Information Project . 2019-01-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140801121535/http://www.pdinfo.com/Copyright-Law/Copyright-Law.php . 2014-08-01 . dead .
6. Web site: Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States . Cornell University Library Copyright Information Center . Hirtle . Peter B. . 3 January 2020 . 17 December 2020.
7. Web site: The Notable Properties Entering the Public Domain This Decade License Global . 2024-01-09 . www.licenseglobal.com . en.
8. Web site: 2021-03-26 . Eat Your Spinach with a Side of Public Domain . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210326183536/https://www.harriscountylawlibrary.org/ex-libris-juris/2021/3/26/eat-your-spinach-with-a-side-of-public-domain . 2021-03-26 . 2023-06-23 . Harris County Robert W. Hainsworth Law Library . en-US.
9. Web site: 2023-12-19 . Public Domain: Mickey and More in ’24 - The Daily Cartoonist . 2024-01-16 . www.dailycartoonist.com . en-US.