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 2027. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
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 For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years. In addition several other countries in the world has a limit of 70 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator.
Names | Country | Birth | Death | Occupation | Notable work |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bertold Brecht | Germany | 10 February 1898 | 14 August 1956 | Playwright | The Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage and Her Children |
Francisco de Aquino Correia | Brazil | 2 April 1885 | 22 March 1956 | Writer | |
Aino Kallas | Finland Estonia | 2 August 1878 | 9 November 1956 | Writer | Sudenmorsian, The Pastor of Reigi, Barbara von Tisenhusen |
A. A. Milne | United Kingdom | 18 January 1882 | 31 January 1956 | Writer | Winnie-the-Pooh |
Alex Raymond | United States | 2 October 1909 | 6 September 1956 | Writer | Flash Gordon |
Jackson Pollock | United States | 28 January 1912 | 11 August 1956 | Painter | |
Michael Ventris | United Kingdom | 12 July 1922 | 6 September 1956 | Classics scholar, philologist | Documents in Mycenaean Greek, Introducing the Minoan Language |
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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ralph Allen | Canada | 25 August 1913 | 2 December 1966 | Writer, journalist | Peace River Country |
Lauro Ayestarán | Uruguay | 9 July 1913 | 22 July 1966 | Musicologist | La música en el Uruguay |
André Breton | France | 19 February 1896 | 28 September 1966 | Writer, poet | Surrealist Manifesto |
Jan Brzechwa | Poland | 15 August 1898 | 2 July 1966 | Poet | |
Deems Taylor | United States | 22 December 1885 | 3 July 1966 | Composer, music critic | |
Walt Disney | United States | 5 December 1901 | 15 December 1966 | Filmmaker | |
C. S. Forester | United Kingdom | 27 August 1899 | 2 April 1966 | Writer | Horatio Hornblower, The African Queen, The General |
Lloyd Garrett | United States | 2 July 1886 | 15 April 1966 | Tenor, composer | |
Alberto Giacometti | Switzerland | 10 October 1901 | 11 January 1966 | Sculptor, painter | The Palace at 4 a.m., L'Homme au doigt, Grande tête mince, L'Homme qui marche I, Large Standing Woman I, Monumental Head |
César Batlle Pacheco | Uruguay | 3 August 1885 | 6 January 1966 | Politician, Journalist | |
Olhinto María Simoes | Uruguay | 5 June 1901 | 9 October 1966 | Poet, journalist | La sombra de los plátanos |
Cordwainer Smith | United States | 11 July 1913 | 6 August 1966 | Science fiction writer, professor, military officer | Psychological Warfare, Norstrilia, Scanners Live in Vain, Alpha Ralpha Boulevard, A Planet Named Shayol |
Evelyn Waugh | United Kingdom | 28 October 1903 | 10 April 1966 | Writer | Vile Bodies, A Handful of Dust |
Mohamed Fawzi | Egypt | 15 August 1918 | 20 October 1966 | Singer, Musician | Kassaman |
Mohamed El Qasabgi | Egypt | 1892 | 25 March 1966 | Musician | Raq El Habib |
Badie' Khayri | Egypt | 17 August 1893 | 1 February 1966 | Playwright | Hassan wa Murqus wa Cohen |
Sayyid Qutb | Egypt | 9 October 1906 | 29 August 1966 | Writer | Ma'alim fi al-Tariq, Fi Zilal al-Quran |
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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Agatha Christie | United Kingdom | 15 September 1890 | 12 January 1976 | Author | The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
Stuart Cloete | South Africa | 23 July 1897 | 19 March 1976 | Author | Turning Wheels |
André Malraux | France | 3 November 1901 | 23 November 1976 | Author | La Condition Humaine |
Edgar Pangborn | United States | 25 February 1909 | 1 February 1974 | SF Author | A Mirror for Observers |
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.
United States
Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books published in 1931, films released in 1931, and other works published in 1931, will enter the public domain in 2027.[1] Sound recordings that were published in 1926 and unpublished works whose authors died in 1956 will also enter the public domain. The Disney animated short The Moose Hunt, featuring the first named appearance of Pluto, enters the public domain. Universal Pictures' Frankenstein and Dracula adaptations will be among the works to enter the public domain. In addition, the character Dick Tracy will enter the public domain.
Other significant films entering the public domain include Charlie Chaplin's City Lights, 1931 Best Picture Oscar-winner Cimarron, Gangster films Little Caesar and The Public Enemy, the Marx Brothers film Monkey Business, Fritz Lang's serial killer drama M, Josef von Sternberg's Dishonered starring Marlene Dietrich, Michael Powell's directorial debut Two Crowded Hours, Otto Preminger's directorial debut The Great Love, Mário Peixoto's Limite, Dave Fleischer's Bimbo's Initiation, the first Canadian sound film The Viking, the first Soviet sound film Road to Life, the first Japanese sound film The Neighbor's Wife and Mine, the first Bollywood-musical Alam Ara (now believed lost) and the first Chinese sound film Sing-Song Red Peony.
Artworks entering the public domain include Salvador Dali's painting The Persistence of Memory, Georgia O'Keeffe's painting Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue, Grant Wood's painting The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere Thomas Hart Benton's painting America Today, Paul Landowski's sculpture Christ the Redeemer, Pablo Picasso's sculpture Bust of a Woman (Marie-Thérèse), Edward Weston's photograph Cabbage Leaf, August Sander's photograph Secretary at West German Radio, Cologne and M.C. Escher's early print Atrani, Coast of Amalfi.
Important literary works entering the public domain include Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves, Lynn Riggs' play Green Grows the Lilacs, Erich Maria Remarque's novel The Road Back, Winston Churchill's final volume of The World Crisis, Georges Simenon's novel The Strange Case of Peter the Lett (containing the first introduction of inspector Inspector Jules Maigret) in its original French, Hergé's Tintin in the Congo in its original French black-and-white version, and Jean de Brunhoff's The Story of Babar in its original French.
See also
- 1956 in literature and 1976 in literature for deaths of writers
- Public Domain Day
- Creative Commons
- 2028 in public domain
References
- ↑ "Copyright and the Public Domain". Public Domain Information Project. Archived from the original on 2014-08-01.
External links
- Media related to Undelete in 2027 at Wikimedia Commons
- "Authors by Year of Death – 1956". AuthorAndBookInfo.com.
- Popular Books of 1931 at Goodreads