When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2018. 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 and Spain (which is Life + 80 for creators who 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.Directive 2006/116/EC The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator that entered the public domain on January 1, 2018. For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years.
Names Country Death Occupation Notable work James Agate Writer, critic Ego Tilly Aston Educator, writer Joseph Barcroft Physiologist The Respiratory Function of the Blood W. Augustus Barratt Composer Sir Patrick Spens Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes Novelist The Lodger J. D. Beresford Science fiction and horror author The Hampdenshire Wonder Augustin Bernard Geographer Les Confins algéro-marocains Tristan Bernard Playwright Mémoires d'un jeune homme rangé Jean-Richard Bloch Writer Orientalist Lessico italiano-turco Pierre Bonnard Painter, printmaker Wolfgang Borchert Playwright Draußen vor der Tür Angela Brazil Children's books author Óscar Castro Zúñiga Writer Llampo de Sangre, Camino en el alba, Comarca del jazmín Willa Cather Writer My Ántonia Poet George Chatterton-Hill Philosopher Heredity and Selection in Sociology Édouard Chatton Biologist Winston Churchill Novelist The Celebrity Ananda Coomaraswamy historian, philosopher The Dance of Shiva Aleister Crowley Poet Bibliography Franz Cumont archeologist Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra Petras Cvirka Author Frank Kruk Josef Čapek April 1945Josef Čapek's remains were never found. In 1948 the court officially set the date of his death, the day which he did not survive being 30 April 1947. Painter, writer All About Doggie and Pussycat Anton Denikin Soldier, writer Russian Turmoil Walter Donaldson Songwriter Makin' Whoopee, Yes Sir, That's My Baby Hans Fallada Writer Der junge Goedeschal, Little Man, What Now? Irving Fisher Economist The Purchasing Power of Money Desmond FitzGerald Architect Henry Ford Business magnate The International Jew John Ulrich Giesy Writer, physician Palos of the Dog Star Pack Victor Goldschmidt Mineralogist Geochemische Verteilungsgesetze der Elemente Reynaldo Hahn Composer Ciboulette G. H. Hardy Mathematician A Mathematician's Apology Frank Heller Writer The London Adventures of Mr. Collin Frederick Gowland Hopkins Biochemist Feeding experiments illustrating the importance of accessory factors in normal dietaries Blanche Hoschedé Monet Painter Victor Horta Architect Albert Howard Botanist An Agricultural Testament Ricarda Huch Author The Deruga Case Painter and illustrator E.M. Hull Novelist The Sheik Pierre Janet Psychologist La médecine psychologique Afevork Ghevre Jesus Writer Ləbb Wälläd Tarik Elizabeth Jordan Journalist, suffragist, author Pyotr Krasnov Soldier, writer From Double Eagle To the Red Flag Painter Richard Le Gallienne author, poet C. Louis Leipoldt Poet Philipp Lenard Physicist Quantitative on cathode rays Physicist Separation of radium C from radium E Hugh Lofting Writer Doctor Dolittle series Ernst Lubitsch Director Manuel Machado Poet and playwright La Lola se va a los puertos Arthur Machen Fantasy and horror author The Great God Pan, The Three Impostors, The Hill of Dreams, The White People Karl Mannheim Sociologist Ideology and Utopia Henri Manuel Photographer William Moulton Marston Psychologist, inventor, comic book writer Wonder Woman, DISC assessment Anatole de Monzie Encyclopaedist Grandeur et servitude judiciaires Yone Noguchi Writer The American Diary of a Japanese Girl Emma Orczy Novelist, Playwright The Scarlet PimpernelP. D. OuspenskyMathematician, esotericist Friedrich Paschen Physicist Ueber die zum Funkenübergang in Luft, Wasserstoff und Kohlensäure bei verschiedenen Drucken erforderliche Potentialdifferenz John Henry Patterson Soldier, hunter, author The Man-Eaters of Tsavo Reginald Payne Illustrator The Railway Series Júlio Afrânio Peixoto Writer Max Planck Scientist R. I. Pocock Zoologist The Fauna of British India Carl Adolph Preyer Composer Festal Polonaise, Op.14 Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz Author Beauty on Earth Forrest Reid Novelist Young Tom Nicholas Roerich Painter, writer 1947 Polish painter active in Georgia Margaret Marshall Saunders Writer . Physicist Emil Schovánek Painter Alexander Scott Chemist An Introduction to Chemical TheoryKathleen Scott Sculptor Victor Serge Marxist revolutionary, writer From Lenin to Stalin, Destiny of a Revolution M. P. Shiel Horror and science fiction author The Purple Cloud, The Yellow Danger Andrei Shkuro Soldier, memoirist Alfred Walter Stewart Chemist, Writer Nordenholt's Million Alan Sullivan Writer The Great Divide Flora Thompson Novelist, poet Lark Rise to Candleford Literary scholar Jim Tully Writer Beggars of Life Marcel Varnel Film Director E. C. Vivian Writer, editor Fields of Sleep Sidney Webb Alfred North Whitehead Mathematician Process and Reality Anna Wickham Poet Songs of John Oland Émile Auguste Joseph De Wildeman Botanist Almroth Wright Bacteriologist The Unexpurgated Case against Woman SuffrageRiichi Yokomitsu Writer Eduard von Zambaur Orientalist Die Münzprägungen des Islams
Entering the public domain in countries with life + 50 years In most countries of Africa and Asia, as well as Belarus, Bolivia, Canada, New Zealand and Uruguay; a work enters the public domain 50 years after the creator's death.
Names Country Death Occupation Notable work J. R. Ackerley Writer, editor My Dog Tulip, We Think the World of You Ciro Alegría Journalist, novelist El mundo es ancho y ajeno Gordon Allport psychologist Becoming: Basic Considerations for a Psychology of Personality Norman Angell journalist, author, politician The Great Illusion Tudor Arghezi poet, novelist, essayist Cuvinte Potrivite, Zdreanță Marcel Aymé Novelist, children's writer, playwright The passer-through-walls Margaret Ayer Barnes playwright, novelist, short-story writer Years of Grace Vladimir Bartol Writer Alamut Frank Bruno Writer, cartoonist, boxer Black Noon at Ngutu, The Hellbuster John Coltrane Saxophonist, composer Giant Steps Isaac Deutscher Biographer Stalin: a Political Biography Julien Duvivier film director, screenwriter Sous le ciel de Paris Ilya Ehrenburg writer, journalist, translator Black Book, The Thaw Sidney Bradshaw Fay Historian The Origins of the World War Varian Fry Journalist The Peace that Failed, Surrender on Demand Hein Gorny Photographer Collection at Deutsche Fotothek Che Guevara Communist revolutionary, author Guerrilla Warfare Robert van Gulik writer, diplomat, translator The Chinese Maze Murders Woody Guthrie singer-songwriter This Land Is Your Land J. A. Hollo Translator, scholar Edward Hopper Painter Nighthawks Langston Hughes Writer The Weary Blues Lajos Kassák Poet, writer, painter Margaret Kennedy Novelist, playwright The Constant Nymph, Troy Chimneys Joseph Kesselring playwright Arsenic and Old Lace Zoltán Kodály Composer, philosopher, ethnomusicologist Psalmus Hungaricus Wolfgang Köhler Psychologist The Mentality of Apes, Gestalt Psychology Writer, journalist Reyles Douglas MacLean actor, writer Mama Loves Papa René Magritte Painter The Difficult Crossing, The Treachery of Images John Masefield Poet, novelist The Everlasting Mercy, Sea-Fever André Maurois author The Silence of Colonel Bramble Carson McCullers Novelist, playwright, poet The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, The Member of the Wedding Edgar Neville playwright, film director Christopher Okigbo Writer J. Robert Oppenheimer Physicist, professor Joe Orton Playwright The Ruffian on the Stair, Entertaining Mr Sloane Dorothy Parker Writer Enough RopeVioleta Parra Composer, songwriterGracias a la Vida Arthur Ransome Writer, journalist Swallows and Amazons series Otis Redding Singer, songwriter Respect Elmer Rice playwright The Adding Machine, Street Scene Gerhard Ritter Historian Luther: Gestalt und Symbol José Martínez Ruiz Novelist, essayist, literary critic La ruta de Don Quijote, La voluntad, Antonio Azorín Carl Sandburg Poet, writer, journalist Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Chicago Poems Siegfried Sassoon poet, soldier, writer Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man Philippa Schuyler Journalist, pianist Adventures in Black and White Walter Terence Stace Philosopher, academic, Mysticism and Philosophy Billy Strayhorn Composer, lyricist Take the "A" Train, Lush Life Jean Toomer Poet, novelist Cane Pavlo Tychyna Poet, statesman Paul Whiteman Bandleader, composer Flamin' Mamie Ossip Zadkine Artist The Destroyed CityWolfgang Zeller ComposerJoão Guimarães RosaWriterSagarana
Entering the public domain in 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. But the change was not made retroactive (unlike the 1995 change in the European Union which bought some e.g. British 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 would come out of copyright until 1 January 2026 (those who died in 1955).
Entering the public domain in the United States
Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, 2018 was the last year that no published works would enter the public domain in this jurisdiction. Only unpublished and unregistered works whose authors died in 1947 entered the public domain.
On January 26, 2018, Ludlow Music, the music publisher for "We Shall Overcome", agreed in a legal settlement that the song is in the public domain.
Worldwide
On February 27, 2018, the video game One Hour One Life was released into the public domain.Rohrer, Jason (17 March 2019). no_copyright.txt. Retrieved 30 December 2019.
See also List of countries' copyright lengths Public Domain Day Creative Commons Public Domain Over 300 public domain authors available in Wikisource (any language), with descriptions from Wikidata 1947 in literature, 1957 in literature, 1967 in literature and 1977 in literature
References
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