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.
Entering the public domain in Europe
In most European nations with the exception of Belarus, copyright law extends for the life of the author or artist, plus 70 years.
Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga
Gabriel Alomar (; 1873–1941) was a poet, essayist, educator and diplomat of the early twentieth century in Spain, closely related to the Catalan art movement Modernisme. He was an active leftist Libertarianism, libertarian, chiefly in Barcelona ...
Raffaello Bertieri
Raffaello Bertieri (1875–1941) was a publisher, graphic designer, and type designer from Florence, Italy. Bertieri began working as a printer's apprentice in 1886 and by 1902 was an editor in Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) ...
Arkady Gaidar
Arkady Petrovich Gaidar (russian: link=no, Арка́дий Петро́вич Гайда́р, born Golikov, russian: link=no, Го́ликов; – 26 October 1941) was a Russian Soviet writer, whose stories were very popular among Soviet chil ...
*
Amalia Guglielminetti
Amalia Guglielminetti (4 April 1881 – 4 December 1941) was an Italian poet and writer.
Life
Amalia, who had two sisters, Emma and Erminia, and a brother, Ernesto, was born in Turin to Pietro Guglielminetti and his wife Felicita Lavezzato. He ...
Edward Bausch
Edward Bausch (September 26, 1854 – July 30, 1941) was an American engineer and business executive, who served as president of Bausch & Lomb Optical Company from 1926 to 1935.
*
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson
Louis Brandeis
Louis Dembitz Brandeis (; November 13, 1856 – October 5, 1941) was an American lawyer and associate justice on the Supreme Court of the United States from 1916 to 1939.
Starting in 1890, he helped develop the "right to privacy" concept ...
*
August Cesarec
August Cesarec (4 December 1893 – 16 July 1941) was a Croatian writer and communist activist from the interwar period.
Cesarec was born in Zagreb, then part of Austria-Hungary. He was the son of a carpenter who was a member of the Socialdemocr ...
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky
Lazar Markovich Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Ла́зарь Ма́ркович Лиси́цкий, ; – 30 December 1941), better known as El Lissitzky (russian: link=no, Эль Лиси́цкий; yi, על ליסיצקי), was a Russian artist ...
Gaetano Mosca
Gaetano Mosca (; 1 April 1858 – 8 November 1941) was an Italian political scientist, journalist and public servant. He is credited with developing the elite theory and the doctrine of the political class and is one of the three members constitu ...
Kole Nedelkovski
Kole Nedelkovski (Bulgarian and mk, Коле Неделковски) was a Macedonian revolutionary and poet,Wilhelm II
*
Petar Poparsov
Petar Pop-Arsov ( bg, Петър Попарсов, mk, Петар Поп Арсов) originally spelled in older Bulgarian orthography: ''Петъръ попъ Арсовъ''; (14 August 1868 – 1 January 1941) was a Bulgarian educator and ...
*
Giuseppe Rensi
Giuseppe Rensi (31 May 1871 in Villafranca di Verona – 14 February 1941 in Genoa) was an Italian philosopher.
Early life and education
Giuseppe Rensi's father Gaetano was a doctor; his mother was Emilia Wallner, and he also had a sister, Te ...
Santiago Rusiñol
Santiago Rusiñol i Prats (, ; Barcelona 25 February 1861 – Aranjuez 13 June 1931) was a Spanish painter, poet, journalist, collector and playwright. He was one of the leaders of the Catalan ''modernisme'' movement. He created more than a ...
Brazil
*
António Cabreira
D. António Tomás da Guarda Cabreira de Faria e Alvelos Drago da Ponte (30 October 1868 – 21 November 1953) was a Portuguese mathematician, polygraph and publicist. A member of the aristocratic Cabreira family, António Cabreira was a claima ...
Entering the 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. If the work is owned by a corporation, then the copyright extends 95 years.
Due to the passing of the Copyright Term Extension Act (''Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act'') in
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...
, no new works would enter the public domain in this jurisdiction until 2019.
In January 2012, the
Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
in a 6-2 decision stated that works in the public domain can have their copyright status renewed.
2020 in public domain
When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2020. Since laws List of countries' copyright lengths, vary globally, the copyright status of some works is not uniform ...
*
2021 in public domain
When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2021. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
Entering the public domain in cou ...
*
2022 in public domain
The following is a list of works that entered the public domain on 1 January 2022. When copyright expires in a creative work, it enters the public domain. Since copyright terms vary from country to country, the copyright status of a work may not ...
Public Domain Day
Public Domain Day (PDD) is an observance of when copyrights expire and works enter into the public domain. This legal transition of copyright works into the public domain usually happens every year on January 1 based on the individual copyright ...
*
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is an American non-profit organization and international network devoted to educational access and expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has release ...
1941 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1941.
Events
* January 3 – A decree (''Normalschrifterlaß'') issued in Nazi Germany by Martin Bormann on behalf of Adolf Hitler calls for replacement of blackl ...
,
1951 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1951.
— Opening lines of ''The Catcher in the Rye''
Events
*January 12 – Janie Moore, C. S. Lewis' so-called adoptive mother, dies.
*March – The American wri ...
,
1961 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1961.
Events
*January 24 – The American dramatist Arthur Miller and the film star Marilyn Monroe are granted a divorce in Mexico on grounds of incompatibility.
*F ...
, and
1971 in literature
This article contains information about the literary events and publications of 1971.
Events
* March 25–December 14 – The 1971 killing of Bengali intellectuals reaches a peak.
* April 21 – The 13th-century ''Codex Regius'' manuscript is r ...