When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that entered the public domain in 2001. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
With the exception of Belarus (Life + 50 years) and Spain (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. [1] [2] The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator that entered the public domain on January 1, 2001.
Names | Country | Birth | Death | Occupation | Notable work |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Iso Mutsu | ![]() | 1867 | 1930 | historian, travel writer | Kamakura: Fact and Legend |
Edward Bok | ![]() | 9 October 1863 | 9 January 1930 | magazine editor, non-fiction writer | Why I Believe in Poverty, The Americanization of Edward Bok, A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After, A Man from Maine |
Johannes Gillhoff | ![]() | 24 May 1861 | 16 January 1930 | teacher, researcher of the expressions and speech patterns of Low German, novelist | Mecklenburgischen Volksrätseln (Mecklenburg folk riddles), Jürnjakob Swehn der Amerikafahrer (Jürnjakob Swehn, the Traveler to America), Mecklenburgischen Monatshefte (Mecklenburg monthly notes) |
Rebecca Latimer Felton | ![]() | 10 June 1835 | 24 January 1930 | white supremacist politician, activist for prison reform, women's suffrage and education reform, | My Memoirs of Georgia Politics, Country Life in Georgia in the Days of my Youth, The Romantic Story of Georgia's Women |
Alice Williams Brotherton | ![]() | 4 April 1848 | 9 February 1930 | poet, essayist, children's writer, literary scholar, specialist on the works of William Shakespeare | Beyond the veil, What the wind told to the tree-tops, The sailing of King Olaf : and other poems, The real Hamlet and the Hamlet oldest of all, Debasing the Poetic Coinage the Quality and Function of Poetry |
George Haven Putnam | ![]() | 2 April 1844 | 27 February 1930 | publisher, president of the publishing company G. P. Putnam's Sons, activist for copyright protection for authors, memoirist, children's writer | Books and Their Makers During the Middle Ages, Censorship of the Church of Rome and Its Influence Upon the Production and Distribution of Literature, A Prisoner of War in Virginia, Memories of a Publisher, Some Memories of the Civil War, The Little Gingerbread Man |
Joseph Wright | ![]() | 31 October 1855 | 27 February 1930 | Germanic philologist, university professor, lexicographer | The English Dialect Dictionary , An Old High-German Primer, A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill in the West Riding of Yorkshire: Illustrated by a Series of Dialect Specimens, Phonetically Rendered; with a Glossarial Index of the Words Used in the Grammar and Specimens, A Primer of the Gothic Language, The English Dialect Grammar, comprising the dialects of England, of the Shetland and Orkney islands, and of those parts of Scotland, Ireland & Wales where English is habitually spoken, Comparative Grammar of the Greek Language |
C. K. Scott Moncrieff | ![]() | 25 September 1889 | 28 February 1930 | short story writer, satirist, translator, literary critic | Evensong and Morwe Song, The Strange and Striking Adventure of Four Authors in Search of a Character, 1926 |
D. H. Lawrence | ![]() | 11 September 1885 | 2 March 1930 | novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic | Sons and Lovers , The Rainbow , Women in Love , Lady Chatterley's Lover |
Alois Jirásek | ![]() | 23 August 1851 | 12 March 1930 | history teacher, historical novelist, playwright | Ancient Bohemian Legends , Mezi proudy (Between the Currents), Proti všem , The Philosophers' Story or Psohlavci |
Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman | ![]() | 31 October 1852 | 13 March 1930 | short story writer, novelist, ghost story writer | A New England Nun , Pembroke , Collected Ghost Stories , co-writer of The Whole Family |
Alfred Williams | ![]() | 7 February 1877 | 10 April 1930 | poet, prose writer, collector of folk song lyrics | Life in a Railway Factory, Songs in Wiltshire |
Sigurd Ibsen | ![]() | 23 December 1859 | 14 April 1930 | politician, Prime Minister of Norway in Stockholm, lawyer, political writer | Unionen, founder of the magazine Ringeren |
Vladimir Mayakovsky | ![]() | 19 July 1893 | 14 April 1930 | poet, playwright, poster artist, manifesto co-writer for Russian Futurism | A Cloud in Trousers , Backbone Flute , The Bedbug , The Bathhouse |
John B. Sheridan | ![]() | 22 January 1870 | 14 April 1930 | sports journalist, whistleblower | regular writer of the sports column Back of Home Plate |
Robert Bridges | ![]() | 23 October 1844 | 21 April 1930 | poet, Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom, playwright, hymn writer, literary critic, World War I propagandist for the War Propaganda Bureau | Milton's Prosody , Humdrum and Harum-Scarum , Eros and Psyche , The Feast of Bacchus, Achilles in Scyros, The Return of Ulysses, Demeter: A Mask, Prometheus the Firegiver: A Mask in the Greek Manner |
Jeppe Aakjær | ![]() | 10 November 1866 | 22 April 1930 | novelist, playwright, poet, member of the Jutland Movement | Bondens Søn (The Peasant's Son), Vredens børn, et tyendes saga (Children of Wrath: A Hired Man's Saga),Arbejdets Glæde (The Joy of Work), Jens Langkniv, Rugens sange (Songs of the Rye), Heimdal's Wanderings |
Maria Polydouri | ![]() | 1 April 1902 | 29 April 1930 | poet, representative of Neo-romanticism, diarist, theatrical actress, dressmaker | The Pain of the Mother, The Chirps that faint, Echo over chaos |
William John Locke | ![]() | 20 March 1863 | 15 May 1930 | short story writer, novelist, playwright | The Morals of Marcus Ordeyne , The Beloved Vagabond , The Glory of Clementina Wing , The Adventure of the Fickle Goddess |
Florence Bell | ![]() | 9 September 1851 | 16 May 1930 | playwright | A Collection of Plays and Monologues for the Drawing Room, At the Works: Study of a Manufacturing Town, Middlesbrough, The Heart of Yorkshire, The Letters of Gertrude Bell Vol 1 and 2, Petit theâtre des enfants: twelve tiny french plays for children |
Herbert Croly | ![]() | 23 January 1869 | 17 May 1930 | political philosopher, intellectual leader of the progressive movement, biographer | The Promise of American Life , Progressive Democracy, Marcus Alonso Hanna: His Life and Work, The Effect on American Institutions of a Powerful Military and Naval Establishment |
Arthur St John Adcock | ![]() | 17 January 1864 | 9 June 1930 | novelist, poet, journalist, magazine editor, one of the "Cockney school novelists" who imitated Charles Dickens [3] | East End Idylls, An unfinished martyrdom and other stories, In The Wake of the War, Songs of the War, The Luck of Private Foster: A Romance of Love and War, The World that Never Was. A London Fantasy, Australasia Triumphant! With the Australians and New Zealanders in the Great War on Land And Sea, For Remembrance. Soldier Poets who have Fallen in the War. With nineteen portraits |
Herbert Warren | ![]() | 21 October 1853 | 9 June 1930 | academic, college president, college rugby football player, poet | By Severn Sea and Other Poems, The Death of Virgil |
Israel Gollancz | ![]() | 13 July 1863 | 23 June 1930 | literary scholar, specialist on the works of William Shakespeare, college professor, translator | co-founder of the British Academy and director of the Early English Text Society, editor of the "Temple" Shakespeare collection of Shakespeare's works and of the anthology A Book of Homage to Shakespeare, article writer for the Dictionary of National Biography |
Arthur Conan Doyle | ![]() | 22 May 1859 | 7 July 1930 | writer in the fields of crime fiction, detective fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction | A Study in Scarlet , Micah Clarke , The Mystery of Cloomber , The Sign of the Four , The White Company , The Great Shadow , The Hound of the Baskervilles , The Lost World , The Land of Mist |
Pavlos Karolidis | ![]() | c. 1849 | 26 July 1930 | historian, politician | Kappadokika, a historical and archaeological dissertation on Cappadocia, History of the 19th Century, Universal or World History, The Ethnic Ancestry of the Orthodox Christians of Syria and Palestine, Contemporary History |
Lucien Wolf | ![]() | 20 January 1857 | 23 August 1930 | historian, diplomat, journalist | The Russian Conspiracy or Russian Monopoly in Opposition to Britain Interest in the East, Menasseh ben Israel’s Mission to Oliver Cromwell, The Myth of the Jewish Menace in World Affairs: The Truth about the Forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion, The Queen's Jewry 1837–1897 |
William Archibald Spooner | ![]() | 22 July 1844 | 29 August 1930 | cleric, university don, lecturer on ancient history, divinity and philosophy, specialist on the works of Aristotle | The Moral Philosophy Of Aristotle, Bishop Butler |
Thomas Nicoll Hepburn | ![]() | 21 April 1861 | 1 September 1930 | novelist, biographer, poet, representative of the literary movement Kailyard school | The Child World, Barncraig: Episodes in the Life of a Scottish Village, Sunshine and Haar: Some Further Glimpses of Life at Barncraig, Robert Burns, The Skipper of Barncraig |
Vladimir Arsenyev | ![]() | 10 November 1872 | 4 September 1930 | explorer of the Far East, travel writer, memoirist | Po Ussuriyskomu krayu (Along the Ussuri land), Dersu Uzala, Skvoz taygu (Through the taiga) |
Georges de Porto-Riche | ![]() | 20 May 1849 | 5 September 1930 | dramatist, novelist, comedy writer | Le Vertige, Les Deux Fautes, La Chance de Françoise, L'Infidèle, Amoureuse, Le Passé, Les Malefilâtre |
Karam Singh | ![]() | 18 March 1884 | 18 September 1930 | historian, poster artist, diarist | Banda Bahadur, Katak Ki Visakh, Jeevan Harnaam Kaur, Maharaja Ala Singh |
Arthur Way | ![]() | 13 February 1847 | 25 September 1930 | classical scholar, translator | Homer, Greek through English, Sons of the Violet-Crowned, a Tale of Ancient Athens |
Olena Pchilka | ![]() | 29 June 1849 | 4 October 1930 | publisher, ethnographer, translator, collector of folk songs, newspaper editor | Ukrainian Folk Ornament, To Ukrainian Children, Thoughts of a Net, Tovaryshky |
Roy Horniman | ![]() | 31 July 1868 | 11 October 1930 | playwright, novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, animal welfare and free speech activist | Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, The Sin of Atlantis, The Living Buddha, A Nonconformist Parson, Lord Cammarleigh's Secret: A Fairy Story of To-Day |
James Surtees Phillpotts | ![]() | 18 July 1839 | 16 October 1930 | educational writer, classics scholar | Stories from Herodotus in Attic Greek, King and Commonwealth: A History of Charles I and the Great Rebellion, Shakespeare's Tempest, Homer without a Lexicon for Beginners, Selections Adapted from Xenophon |
William B. Hanna | ![]() | 5 January 1866 | 20 November 1930 | sports journalist | sports columns for various newspapers based in New York City, received posthumous recognition by the New York Baseball Writers Association |
Jean-Marie-Raphaël Le Jeune | ![]() | 12 April 1855 | 21 November 1930 | missionary, linguist, newspaper publisher | Practical Chinook vocabulary, Prayers in the Okanagan language, Polyglott manual of prayers, Chinook rudiments |
Florbela Espanca | ![]() | 8 December 1894 | 8 December 1930 | poet | O livro D'ele (His book), Livro de Mágoas (The Book of Sorrows), Livro de Soror Saudade (Sister Saudade's Book), Charneca em Flor (Heath in Bloom) |
Neil Munro | ![]() | 3 June 1863 | 22 December 1930 | historical novelist, short story writer, journalist, newspaper editor, literary critic | The New Road , John Splendid, Doom Castle, The Daft Days |
Marion Manville Pope | ![]() | 13 July 1859 | 22 December 1930 | children's writer, poet | Over the divide and other verses, Up the matterhorn in a boat, Between two gods : [an allegory], |
In most countries of Africa and Asia, as well as Belarus, Bolivia, Canada, 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 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basil Williams | ![]() | 4 April 1867 | 5 January 1950 | historian | The Life of William Pitt, Earl of Chatham , Botha, Smuts and South Africa, The Whig Supremacy |
Joseph Schumpeter | ![]() | 8 February 1883 | 8 January 1950 | political economist | Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy , The theory of economic development: an inquiry into profits, capital, credit, interest, and the business cycle, Economic doctrine and method: an historical sketch, The sociology of imperialisms, Social classes in an ethnically homogeneous environment, Depressions: Can we learn from past experience? |
George Orwell | ![]() | 26 June 1903 | 21 January 1950 | dystopian fiction writer, novelist, essayist, journalist, critic | Animal Farm , Nineteen Eighty-Four , The Road to Wigan Pier , Homage to Catalonia , Burmese Days |
D. K. Broster | ![]() | 2 September 1877 | 7 February 1950 | historical novelist, horror fiction writer, short-story writer | The Flight of the Heron , "Mr. Rowl" , Couching at the Door: Strange and Macabre Tales, Clairvoyance, Juggernaut, The Pestering |
Rafael Sabatini | ![]() | 29 April 1875 | 13 February 1950 | romance and adventure novelist, short story writer, playwright | The Sea Hawk , Scaramouche , Captain Blood , Bellarion the Fortunate |
Irving Bacheller | ![]() | 26 September 1859 | 24 February 1950 | novelist, journalist | Eben Holden , The Master of Silence, Still House of O'Darrow, The Light in the Clearing, A Man for the Ages, The Master of Chaos |
Edgar Lee Masters | ![]() | 23 August 1868 | 5 March 1950 | novelist, dramatist, biographer, poet | Spoon River Anthology , To-morrow is My Birthday, Across Spoon River: An Autobiography, Lincoln: The Man, Mark Twain: A Portrait, The Blood of the Prophets, The Fate of the Jury: An Epilogue to Domesday Book, The Tide of Time |
Heinrich Mann | ![]() | 27 March 1871 | 11 March 1950 | novelist | Der Untertan , Professor Unrat , Die Jugend des Königs Henri Quatre, Die Vollendung des Königs Henri Quatre |
Edgar Rice Burroughs | ![]() | 1 September 1875 | 19 March 1950 | writer in the genres of adventure fiction, science fiction, and fantasy | A Princess of Mars , Thuvia, Maid of Mars , Llana of Gathol , Tarzan and the Lost Empire , Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar , Land of Terror , The Land That Time Forgot |
Emmanuel Mounier | ![]() | 1 April 1905 | 22 March 1950 | philosopher, theologian, representative of personalism | Révolution personnaliste et communautaire, De la propriété capitaliste à la propriété humaine, Manifeste au service du personnalisme, Pacifistes ou Bellicistes, L'éveil de l'Afrique noire |
Henric Streitman | ![]() | 16 February 1870 | c. 30 March 1950 | politician, journalist, translator | Între da și nu (Between Yes and No), Mi se pare că... (Signs Point to...) |
In the United States, the copyright status of works extends for the life of the author or artists, plus 70 years. [4] [5] If the work is owned by a corporation, then the copyright extends 95 years. [6]
Due to the passing of the Copyright Term Extension Act (Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act) in 1998, no new works would enter the public domain in this jurisdiction until 2019. [7]