When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of creators whose works entered the public domain in 2023. 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 For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator. NamesCountryDeathOccupationNotable work Youssef Aftimus Architect Beirut City Hall Betty Allan Statistician August Alle Writer Paul Hastings Allen Composer Aziza Amir Screenwriter, actress A Girl from Palestine Charles Ancliffe Composer Céline Arnauld Writer Yury Artsybushev Painter Alice Austen Photographer Frederic Austin Composer, singer List of compositions by Frederic Austin Nat Ayer Composer The Bing Boys Are Here, Yes, Uncle! Mariano Azuela Writer The Underdogs Adivi Baapiraju 1952 Writer Ferdinand Bac Writer, artist Jimmy Bancks Cartoonist Ginger Meggs Bruno Barilli Composer Antonieta de Barros Journalist, politician Rudolf Hans Bartsch Writer Ioan A. Bassarabescu Writer, politician Gaston Baty Playwright Nicolae Constantin Batzaria Writer, politician Nikolai Bayev Architect Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater John Hay Beith Writer Pip Zeev Ben-Zvi 1952 Sculptor David Bergelson Writer Joseph Berlin 1952 Architect Lodzia House Gino Boccasile Illustrator Waldemar Bonsels Writer Maya the Bee Giuseppe Antonio Borgese Writer Henriëtte Bosmans Composer Erma Bossi Painter Sergei BortkiewiczComposerList of compositions by Sergei BortkiewiczMarjorie BowenWriter Bertram Bracken Film director, screenwriter E. J. Brady Journalist, poet The Earthen Floor Émile Bréhier Philosopher Margaret Wise Brown Writer Goodnight Moon, The Runaway Bunny Paul Bujor Biologist, writer Delfina Bunge Writer Adolf Busch Musician, composer Jack Caddigan Lyricist "The Rose of No Man's Land" Brun Campbell Composer Adolf Černý Poet Theo Champion Painter Wilfred Rowland Childe 1952 Writer Howard Chandler Christy Painter, illustrator Max Clarenbach Painter Frederick de Jersey Clere Architect St Mary of the Angels, Wellington Marie Closset Poet Archie Frederick Collins Inventor, writer The Radio Amateur's Handbook Jack Conway Film director, actor A Tale of Two Cities Romain Coolus Playwright André Corthis Writer Annie Sophie Cory Writer Anna Lombard Kathleen Coyle Writer Arthur Shearly Cripps Writer, religious leader Benedetto Croce Philosopher, historian Manifesto of the Anti-Fascist Intellectuals Edward S. Curtis Photographer, ethnologist In the Land of the Head Hunters Catherine Chisholm Cushing Writer Sebastião da Gama Poet Surendranath Dasgupta Philosopher Jo Davidson Sculptor Eugenio de Liguoro Film director, actor John Dewey Philosopher John Dewey bibliography Mikhail Doller Film director, screenwriter The End of St. Petersburg Norman Douglas Writer South Wind Harvey Dunn Painter Henry Edwards Film director, actor Raymond B. Egan Songwriter "The Japanese Sandman" Richard Eichberg Film director The Tiger of Eschnapur, The Indian Tomb Alfred Einstein Musicologist Otto Eis Screenwriter George Grant Elmslie Architect Harold C. Bradley House Paul Éluard Poet Lydia Field Emmet Painter Philip G. Epstein Screenwriter Casablanca Lucien Fabre Writer Ludwig Fahrenkrog Painter Jeffery Farnol Writer The Broad Highway Arthur Farwell Composer Itzik Feffer Poet Macedonio Fernández Writer The Museum of Eterna's Novel John Flanagan Sculptor Ernest Florman Film director Hugh Ford 1952 Film director, screenwriter Elena Fortún Writer Celia, lo que dice Gilbert Frankau Writer Charles K. French Actor, film director, screenwriter Carl Friedemann Composer "Kaiser Friedrich Marsch" Svend Gade 1952 Film director, screenwriter Leonhard Gall Architect Führerbau Sawai Gandharva Singer, teacher John Murray Gibbon Writer Canadian Mosaic C. P. H. Gilbert Architect Charles Ginner Painter Charles Buxton Going 1952 Engineer, writer Percy Gray Painter Sammy Gronemann Writer René Grousset Historian The Empire of the Steppes Ernst Haiger Architect Covington Hall Activist, writer Halfdan M. Hanson Architect Our Lady of Good Voyage Church Cicely Hamilton Writer Gertrude Demain Hammond Illustrator Knut Hamsun Writer, poet Growth of the Soil Hildegarde Hawthorne Writer Sven Hedin Geographer, travel writer Through Asia Volume 1 Aaro Hellaakoski Poet Fletcher Henderson Musician, composer A Study in Frustration Graily Hewitt 1952 Calligrapher, writer Laura Coombs Hills Artist David Hofstein Poet Hilda Hongell Architect Curly Howard Actor Felix Huch Writer Billy Hughes Politician Myron Hunt Architect Bridges Hall of Music Harold Innis Economist Horace Jackson Screenwriter Frederick Jacobi Composer Rashid Jahan Writer Angarey Alan James Film director, screenwriter Enrique Jardiel Poncela Writer, playwright We Thieves Are Honourable Harry Benjamin Jepson Composer Frances Benjamin Johnston Photographer Owen Johnson Writer Stover at Yale Eugene Jolas Writer Herbert Juttke 1952 Screenwriter David Kakabadze Painter Fabjan Kaliterna Architect Ariake Kambara Writer Composer Artur Kapp Composer Bernard Karfiol Painter Otto Katz Agent, writer Elizabeth Kenny Nurse, physical therapist Frederic G. Kenyon Historian Rollin Kirby Cartoonist Alexandra Kollontai Politician, writer Red Love Sadie Koninsky Composer Kosugi Tengai Writer Vasyl Krychevsky Painter, architect Coat of arms of Ukraine Masao Kume Writer Leib Kvitko Poet Gregory La Cava Film director My Man Godfrey Max Laeuger Architect, ceramicist Alfred La Liberté Composer Karel Lamač Film director William F. Lamb Architect Empire State Building Rued Langgaard Composer Music of the Spheres Carlos Alberto Leumann 1952 Poet Heinrich Lilienfein Writer Yrjö Lindegren Architect Helsinki Olympic Stadium Percy Lindsay Painter Julie M. Lippmann 1952 Writer Jessie Lipscomb Sculptor William J. Long 1952 Writer Ferdinand Lot Historian Andrés Luna de San Pedro Architect First United Building Desmond MacCarthy Writer J. Farrell MacDonald Film director, actor Edward Madden Songwriter Mahjoor Poet Hakob Manandian Historian Anna Margolin 1952 Poet Peretz Markish Poet Enrique González Martínez Poet H. J. Massingham Writer, poet Charles Maurras Writer Achille Mauzan 1952 Illustrator William Sutherland Maxwell Architect Shrine of the Báb J. P. McGowan Actor, film director The Hazards of Helen, The Hurricane ExpressE. H. W. Meyerstein Writer, scholar Robert Minor Cartoonist Mir-Jam Writer Ferenc Molnár Writer, playwright The Paul Street Boys, Liliom Montéhus 1952 Songwriter Italo Montemezzi Composer L'amore dei tre re Maria Montessori Educator Irving Morrow Architect Golden Gate Bridge Lodewijk Mortelmans Composer Willy Mullens Film director Keith Murdoch Journalist Matija Murko Literary historian Herbert Murrill Composer Bangalore Nagarathnamma Singer, writer Ghulam Bhik Nairang Poet, politician Shinpei Nakayama Songwriter "Katyusha's song" Alfred Neumann Writer John O'Brien Priest, poet "Said Hanrahan" Ivan Olbracht Writer Nikola Šuhaj loupežník Herbert Arnould Olivier Painter Paul Ondrusch Sculptor Joseph O'Neill Writer Vittorio Emanuele Orlando Politician Henry Otto Film director, actor Fulton Oursler Writer The Greatest Story Ever Told Russell Owen Journalist South of the Sun Frances Theodora Parsons Naturalist, writer Jack Parsons Engineer, occultist Teixeira de Pascoaes Writer Raymond Pech Writer Constant Permeke Painter, sculptor Eva Perón Politician, actress La razón de mi vida Paul Pierné Composer Ladislaus Pilars de Pilar Poet Arthur Pink Writer Charles Plisnier Writer Faux passeports Pedro Prado Writer Chilukuri Narayana Rao 1952 Writer Hugo Raudsepp Writer, politician Karl Ludvig Reichelt Writer Elizabeth Robins Writer Lou Rogers Cartoonist Henriette Roland Holst Poet A. S. W. Rosenbach Collector, writer William Roughead 1952 Writer, lawyer Joan Rubió Architect Edwin L. Sabin Writer Wadia Sabra Composer Olaf Saile Writer George Santayana Philosopher, writer The Life of Reason Garimella Satyanarayana Poet Fred Sauer Film director, screenwriter Jurgis Savickis Writer Alberto Savinio Writer, composer Wilhelm Schäfer Writer Laurence Dwight Smith 1952 Writer Georg Schumann Composer Vincent Scotto Composer Philip Walsingham Sergeant Writer Modern Chess Openings Franz Seitz Sr. Film director, screenwriter Carlo Sforza Politician Ilya Shatrov Composer "On the Hills of Manchuria" Tatiana Shchepkina-Kupernik Writer, translator Vladimir Shcherbachov Composer Maria Shkapskaya Writer Rudolf Sieczyński Composer "Vienna, City of My Dreams" Renato Simoni Playwright Turandot Christopher Arthur Smith Architect Capri Theatre, Peterborough Town Hall Leo Smith Composer Herman Sörgel Architect Niles Spencer Painter Jaap Speyer 1952 Film director Fráňa Šrámek Writer Malcolm St. Clair Film director Władysław Strzemiński Painter Gusztáv Szerémi Composer Ray Taylor Film director Giovanni Tebaldini Composer Teffi Writer Josephine Tey Writer The Daughter of Time Jean Tharaud Writer Anna-Lisa Thomson Ceramist Henriette Tirman Painter John Treloar Museum administrator Lamar Trotti Screenwriter Josef Thorak Sculptor Uncle Dave Macon Singer-songwriter Fartein Valen Composer Antonio María Valencia Composer Lodewijk van Deyssel Writer Johan van Hell Artist Louis Valtat Painter Louis Verneuil Playwright Clara Viebig Writer Roger Vitrac Playwright, poet Ellen Roosval von Hallwyl 1952 Artist Karl Wach Architect Lars Israel Wahlman Architect Tjolöholm Castle H. T. Webster Cartoonist Caspar Milquetoast Adolph Alexander Weinman Sculptor Walking Liberty half dollar, Mercury dime Percy Wenrich Composer "Sail Along, Silv'ry Moon" Roland West Film director Alberto Williams Composer Poema del Iguazú Hans Wittwer Architect ADGB Trade Union School Paramahansa Yogananda Yogi, writer Autobiography of a Yogi Ellsworth Young 1952 Artist Ernst Zahn Writer Frau Sixta Lee Woodward Zeigler Illustrator
Countries with life + 60 years In Bangladesh, India, and Venezuela a work enters the public domain 60 years after the creator's death. NamesCountryDeathOccupationNotable work Enriqueta Arvelo Larriva Poet Karen Blixen Author Works Paul David Devanandan Theologian Hanns Eisler Composer Auferstanden aus Ruinen William Faulkner Writer Bibliography Mary Gilmore Writer, journalist Bibliography Hermann Hesse Poet, novelist Books Hu Shih Academic, writer, and politician A. K. Fazlul Huq Politician, writer Vilayat Hussain Khan 1962 Singer, composer M. Visvesvaraya Civil engineer
Countries with life + 50 years In most countries of Africa and Asia, as well as Belarus, Bolivia, New Zealand, and Egypt, a work enters the public domain 50 years after the creator's death.