2025 in public domain

Short description: Overview of works entering public domain

The works of Colette will enter the public domain in Europe in 2025.

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.

## Contents

* 1 Entering the public domain in countries with life + 70 years
* 2 Entering the public domain in countries with life + 80 years
* 3 Countries with life + 60 years
* 4 Entering the public domain in countries with life + 50 years
* 5 Australia and Canada
* 6 United States
* 7 See also
* 8 References
* 9 External links

## Entering the public domain in 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 For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator that entered the public domain on 1 January 2025.

Names  | Country  | Birth  | Death  | Occupation  | Notable work

|
|
|
|
|

Sait Faik Abasıyanık  |  Turkey  | 1906  | 1954  | Writer  |
Franco Alfano  |  Italy  | 1875  | 1954  | Composer  | List of operas by Franco Alfano
Oswald de Andrade  |  Brazil  | 1890  | 1954  | Writer  |
Stig Dagerman |  Sweden  | 1923  | 1954  | Writer, Journalist  |
Lionel Barrymore  |  United States  | 1878  | 1954  | Actor, film director  | Lionel Barrymore on stage, screen and radio
Jacinto Benavente  |  Spain  | 1866  | 1954  | Writer  |
Werner Bischof  |  Switzerland  | 1916  | 1954  | Photographer  |
Robert Capa  |  Hungary  | 1913  | 1954  | Photographer  |
Colette  |  France  | 1873  | 1954  | Writer  | Claudine series, The Tendrils of the Vine, Gigi
André Derain  |  France  | 1880  | 1954  | Painter, sculptor  |
Wilhelm Furtwängler  |  Germany  | 1880  | 1954  | Conductor, composer  |
E. Ray Goetz  |  United States  | 1886  | 1954  | Composer, lyricist  | "For Me and My Gal"
Heinz Guderian  |  Germany  | 1888  | 1954  | General  | Achtung – Panzer!, Panzer Leader
Thea von Harbou  |  Germany  | 1888  | 1954  | Writer, film director  | Metropolis
James Hilton  |  United Kingdom  | 1900  | 1954  | Writer  | Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Lost Horizon
Sydney Horler  |  United Kingdom  | 1888  | 1954  | Writer  |
Raymond Hubbell  |  United States  | 1879  | 1954  | Composer, lyricist  | "Poor Butterfly"
Charles Ives  |  United States  | 1874  | 1954  | Composer  | List of compositions by Charles Ives
Hans Janowitz  |  Germany  | 1890  | 1954  | Screenwriter  | The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Frida Kahlo  |  Mexico  | 1907  | 1954  | Painter  | List of paintings by Frida Kahlo
Kalki Krishnamurthy  |  India  | 1899  | 1954  | Writer  | Ponniyin Selvan
Achille Longo  |  Italy  | 1900  | 1954  | Composer  |
Gino Loria |  Italy  | 1862  | 1954  | Mathematician  |
Henri Matisse  |  France  | 1869  | 1954  | Painter, sculptor  | List of works by Henri Matisse
Pieter Nicolaas van Eyck |  Netherlands  | 1887  | 1954  | Poet  |
Getúlio Vargas  |  Brazil  | 1882  | 1954  | Politician  | Carta Testamento
Alpheus Hyatt Verrill  |  United States  | 1871  | 1954  | Writer, zoologist  |
Dziga Vertov  |  Soviet Union  | 1896  | 1954  | Film director  |
Francis Brett Young  |  United Kingdom  | 1884  | 1954  | Writer, composer  |

## Entering the public domain in countries with life + 80 years

Spain has a copyright term of life + 80 years for creators that died before 1987. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator that entered the public domain on 1 January 2025.

Names  | Country  | Birth  | Death  | Occupation  | Notable work

|
|
|
|
|

Krzysztof Kamil Baczyński  |  Poland  | 1921  | 1944  | Poet  |
George Herriman  |  United States  | 1880  | 1944  | Cartoonist  | Krazy Kat
Winsor McCay  |  United States  | 1866–71  | 1944  | Cartoonist, illustrator and animator  | Little Nemo
Dream of the Rarebit Fiend
Gertie the Dinosaur
Piet Mondrian  |  Netherlands  | 1872  | 1944  | Painter and art theoretician  | Gray Tree
Composition with Red Blue and Yellow
Broadway Boogie Woogie
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry |  France  | 1900  | 1944  | Writer  | The Little Prince
W. Heath Robinson  |  United Kingdom  | 1872  | 1944  | Cartoonist, illustrator, artist  |

## Countries with life + 60 years

India

Names  | Country  | Birth  | Death  | Occupation  | Notable work

|
|
|
|
|

J. B. S. Haldane |  United Kingdom
India  | 1892  | 1964  | Geneticist, biologist  | Daedalus; or, Science and the Future, The Causes of Evolution, My Friend Mr Leakey

## Entering the public domain in countries with life + 50 years

In most countries of Africa and Asia, as well as Belarus , Bolivia, 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

|
|
|
|
|

Farid al-Atrash  |  Syria
Egypt  | 1917  | 1974  | Musician  |
Hector Bolitho  |  New Zealand  | 1897  | 1974  | Author  |
Nellie Coad  |  New Zealand  | 1883  | 1974  | Teacher, writer  | New Zealand: From Tasman to Massey
Maurice Duggan  |  New Zealand  | 1922  | 1974  | Writer  |
Julius Evola |  Italy  | 1898  | 1974  | Philosopher  | Revolt Against the Modern World
Georgette Heyer  |  United Kingdom  | 1902  | 1974  | Author  | These Old Shades
Eve Langley  |  New Zealand  | 1904  | 1974  | Writer  |
Margaret MacPherson  |  New Zealand  | 1895  | 1974  | Writer, journalist  |
P. Schuyler Miller  |  United States  | 1912  | 1974  | SF Author  |
Leslie Munro  |  New Zealand  | 1901  | 1974  | Diplomat, politician, journalist  | United Nations: hope for a divided world
Robert Charles Zaehner |  United Kingdom  | 1913  | 1974  | Historian of religion, Spy  | Zurvan. A Zoroastrian Dilemma, Mysticism: Sacred and Profane, Our Savage God

## Australia and 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).

## United States

Among the works entering the public domain in the United States in 2025 is the Marx Brothers film The Cocoanuts

Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books published in 1929, films released in 1929, and other works published in 1929, will enter the public domain in 2025.[4] Sound recordings that were published in 1924 will enter the public domain.[5] The characters Buck Rogers,[6] Captain Easy[7] 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 launched in 1929.[7]

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

Among the films that will enter public domain in 2025 is the first film of The Marx Brothers, The Cocoanuts, second Academy Award for Best Picture winner The Broadway Melody, Buster Keaton's final full-length feature as a director Spite Marriage, Harold Lloyd's first sound film Welcome Danger, the first sound film in color On with the Show!, the first Shakespeare film-adaptation with sound The Taming of the Shrew, Hallelujah which is the first Hollywood film with an all black cast, The Cock-Eyed World, Show Boat containing some songs of the 1927 musical, Alfred Hitchcock's first sound film Blackmail, Atlantic which is the first sound film about the Titanic-disaster, the first French sound film The Three Masks, the first German sound film Land Without Women, Fritz Lang's Woman in the Moon, G.W. Pabst's Pandora’s Box and Diary of a Lost Girl both starring Louise Brooks, Documentary film Drifters, Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali's film Un Chien Andalou, Man Ray's film The Mysteries of the Chateau of Dice, and Joris Ivens' Rain, the sound versions of the Mickey Mouse-cartoons The Gallopin' Gaucho, Plane Crazy and The Karnival Kid (the latter 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, 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.

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

## References

1. ↑ "How long does copyright last?". https://www.nla.gov.au/how-long-does-copyright-last.
2. ↑ "An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on April 7, 2022 and other measures". Parliament of Canada. 2022-06-23. https://parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/44-1/bill/C-19/royal-assent.
3. ↑ "PC Number: 2022-1219". Government of Canada. 2022-11-17. https://orders-in-council.canada.ca/attachment.php?attach=42842.
4. ↑ "Copyright and the Public Domain". Public Domain Information Project. http://www.pdinfo.com/Copyright-Law/Copyright-Law.php.
5. ↑ Hirtle, Peter B. (3 January 2020). "Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States". Cornell University Library Copyright Information Center. https://copyright.cornell.edu/publicdomain.
6. ↑ "The Notable Properties Entering the Public Domain This Decade | License Global" (in en). https://www.licenseglobal.com/trends-insights/notable-properties-entering-public-domain-decade.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Public Domain: Mickey and More in ’24 - The Daily Cartoonist" (in en-US). 2023-12-19. https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2023/12/19/public-domain-mickey-and-more-in-24/.
8. ↑ "Eat Your Spinach with a Side of Public Domain" (in en-US). 2021-03-26. https://www.harriscountylawlibrary.org/ex-libris-juris/2021/3/26/eat-your-spinach-with-a-side-of-public-domain.

## External links

* "Authors by Year of Death – 1954". AuthorAndBookInfo.com. http://www.authorandbookinfo.com/abyod/1954.htm.
* Popular Books of 1929 at Goodreads

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* Public Domain Day
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