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.
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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. [1] [2] 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 For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years.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 |  United Kingdom | 6 June 1947 | Writer, critic | Ego |
| Tilly Aston |  Australia | 1 November 1947 | Educator, writer | |
| Joseph Barcroft | United Kingdom | 21 March 1947 | Physiologist | The Respiratory Function of the Blood |
| W. Augustus Barratt |  United States | 12 April 1947 | Composer | Sir Patrick Spens |
| Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes | United Kingdom | 14 November 1947 | Novelist | The Lodger |
| J. D. Beresford | United Kingdom | 1 February 1947 | Science fiction and horror author | The Hampdenshire Wonder |
| Augustin Bernard |  France | 29 December 1947 | Geographer | Les Confins algéro-marocains |
| Tristan Bernard | France | 7 December 1947 | Playwright | Mémoires d'un jeune homme rangé |
| Jean-Richard Bloch | France | 15 March 1947 | Writer | |
| Luigi Bonelli [ it ] |  Italy | 26 January 1947 | Orientalist | Lessico italiano-turco |
| Pierre Bonnard | France | 23 January 1947 | Painter, printmaker | |
| Wolfgang Borchert |  Germany | 20 November 1947 | Playwright | Draußen vor der Tür |
| Angela Brazil | United Kingdom | 13 March 1947 | Children's books author | |
| Óscar Castro Zúñiga |  Chile | 1 October 1947 | Writer | Llampo de Sangre, Camino en el alba, Comarca del jazmín |
| Willa Cather | United States | 24 April 1947 | Writer | My Ántonia |
| Dmitry Censor [ ru ] |  Russia | 26 December 1947 | Poet | |
| George Chatterton-Hill |  Ireland | 12 January 1947 | Philosopher | Heredity and Selection in Sociology |
| Édouard Chatton | France | 23 April 1947 | Biologist | |
| Winston Churchill | United States | 12 March 1947 | Novelist | The Celebrity |
| Ananda Coomaraswamy | United States | 9 September 1947 | historian, philosopher | The Dance of Shiva |
| Aleister Crowley | United Kingdom | 1 December 1947 | Poet | Bibliography |
| Franz Cumont |  Belgium | 20 August 1947 | archeologist | Texts and Illustrated Monuments Relating to the Mysteries of Mithra |
| Petras Cvirka |  Lithuania | 2 May 1947 | Author | Frank Kruk |
| Josef Čapek |  Czech | April 1945 [3] | Painter, writer | All About Doggie and Pussycat |
| Anton Denikin | Russia | 8 August 1947 | Soldier, writer | Russian Turmoil |
| Walter Donaldson | United States | 15 July 1947 | Songwriter | Makin' Whoopee , Yes Sir, That's My Baby |
| Hans Fallada | Germany | 5 February 1947 | Writer | Der junge Goedeschal, Little Man, What Now? |
| Irving Fisher | United States | 29 April 1947 | Economist | The Purchasing Power of Money |
| Desmond FitzGerald | Ireland | 9 April 1947 | Architect | |
| Henry Ford | United States | 7 April 1947 | Business magnate | The International Jew |
| John Ulrich Giesy | United States | 8 September 1947 | Writer, physician | Palos of the Dog Star Pack |
| Victor Goldschmidt |  Norway | 20 March 1947 | Mineralogist | Geochemische Verteilungsgesetze der Elemente |
| Reynaldo Hahn | France | 28 January 1947 | Composer | Ciboulette |
| G. H. Hardy | United Kingdom | 1 December 1947 | Mathematician | A Mathematician's Apology |
| Frank Heller |  Sweden | 14 October 1947 | Writer | The London Adventures of Mr. Collin |
| Frederick Gowland Hopkins | United Kingdom | 16 May 1947 | Biochemist | Feeding experiments illustrating the importance of accessory factors in normal dietaries |
| Blanche Hoschedé Monet | France | 8 December 1947 | Painter | |
| Victor Horta | Belgium | 9 August 1947 | Architect | |
| Albert Howard | United Kingdom | 20 October 1947 | Botanist | An Agricultural Testament |
| Ricarda Huch | Germany | 17 November 1947 | Author | The Deruga Case |
| Stanislav Hudeček | Czech Republic | 15 April 1947 | Painter and illustrator | |
| E.M. Hull | United Kingdom | 11 February 1947 | Novelist | The Sheik |
| Pierre Janet | France | 24 February 1947 | Psychologist | La médecine psychologique |
| Afevork Ghevre Jesus |  Ethiopia | 25 September 1947 | Writer | Ləbb Wälläd Tarik |
| Elizabeth Jordan | United States | 24 February 1947 | Journalist, suffragist, author | |
| Pyotr Krasnov | Russia | 17 January 1947 | Soldier, writer | From Double Eagle To the Red Flag |
| Karel Langer | Czech Republic | 2 May 1947 | Painter | |
| Richard Le Gallienne | United Kingdom | 15 September 1947 | author, poet | |
| C. Louis Leipoldt |  South Africa | 12 April 1947 | Poet | |
| Philipp Lenard | Germany | 20 May 1947 | Physicist | Quantitative on cathode rays |
| Friedrich von Lerch |  Austria | 19 December 1947 | Physicist | Separation of radium C from radium E |
| Hugh Lofting | United Kingdom | 26 September 1947 | Writer | Doctor Dolittle series |
| Ernst Lubitsch | Germany | 30 November 1947 | Director | |
| Manuel Machado |  Spain | 19 January 1947 | Poet and playwright | La Lola se va a los puertos |
| Arthur Machen | United Kingdom | 15 December 1947 | Fantasy and horror author | The Great God Pan , The Three Impostors , The Hill of Dreams , The White People |
| Karl Mannheim | United Kingdom | 9 January 1947 | Sociologist | Ideology and Utopia |
| Henri Manuel | France | 11 September 1947 | Photographer | |
| William Moulton Marston | United States | 2 May 1947 | Psychologist, inventor, comic book writer | Wonder Woman , DISC assessment |
| Anatole de Monzie | France | 11 January 1947 | Encyclopaedist | Grandeur et servitude judiciaires |
| Yone Noguchi |  Japan | 13 July 1947 | Writer | The American Diary of a Japanese Girl |
| Emma Orczy | United Kingdom | 12 November 1947 | Novelist, Playwright | The Scarlet Pimpernel |
| P. D. Ouspensky | Russia | 2 October 1947 | Mathematician, esotericist | |
| Friedrich Paschen | Germany | 25 February 1947 | Physicist | Ueber die zum Funkenübergang in Luft, Wasserstoff und Kohlensäure bei verschiedenen Drucken erforderliche Potentialdifferenz |
| John Henry Patterson | United Kingdom | 18 June 1947 | Soldier, hunter, author | The Man-Eaters of Tsavo |
| Reginald Payne | United Kingdom | 20 December 1947 | Illustrator | The Railway Series |
| Júlio Afrânio Peixoto |  Brazil | 12 January 1947 | Writer | |
| Max Planck | Germany | 4 October 1947 | Scientist | |
| R. I. Pocock | United Kingdom | 9 August 1947 | Zoologist | The Fauna of British India |
| Carl Adolph Preyer | United States | 16 November 1947 | Composer | Festal Polonaise, Op.14 |
| Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz |  Switzerland | 23 May 1947 | Author | Beauty on Earth |
| Forrest Reid | United Kingdom | 4 January 1947 | Novelist | Young Tom |
| Nicholas Roerich | Russia  India | 13 December 1947 | Painter, writer | |
| Borys Romanowski [ ka ] |  Georgia | 1947 | Polish painter active in Georgia | |
| Margaret Marshall Saunders |  Canada | 15 February 1947 | Writer | |
| Johannes Schubert [ ar; de ]. | Austria | 29 September 1947 | Physicist | |
| Emil Schovánek | Czech Republic | 11 July 1947 | Painter | |
| Alexander Scott | United Kingdom | 10 March 1947 | Chemist | An Introduction to Chemical Theory |
| Kathleen Scott | United Kingdom | 25 July 1947 | Sculptor | |
| Victor Serge | Belgium | 17 November 1947 | Marxist revolutionary, writer | From Lenin to Stalin, Destiny of a Revolution |
| M. P. Shiel |  Montserrat | 17 February 1947 | Horror and science fiction author | The Purple Cloud , The Yellow Danger |
| Andrei Shkuro | Russia | 17 January 1947 | Soldier, memoirist | |
| Alfred Walter Stewart | United Kingdom | 1 July 1947 | Chemist, Writer | Nordenholt's Million |
| Alan Sullivan | Canada | 6 August 1947 | Writer | The Great Divide |
| Flora Thompson | United Kingdom | 21 May 1947 | Novelist, poet | Lark Rise to Candleford |
| Mstislav Tsyavlovsky [ ru ] | Russia  Soviet Union | 11 November 1947 | Literary scholar | |
| Jim Tully | United States | 22 June 1947 | Writer | Beggars of Life |
| Marcel Varnel | France | 13 July 1947 | Film Director | |
| E. C. Vivian | United Kingdom | 21 May 1947 | Writer, editor | Fields of Sleep |
| Sidney Webb | United Kingdom | 13 October 1947 | ||
| Alfred North Whitehead | United Kingdom | 30 December 1947 | Mathematician | Process and Reality |
| Anna Wickham | United Kingdom | 30 April 1947 | Poet | Songs of John Oland |
| Émile Auguste Joseph De Wildeman | Belgium | 24 July 1947 | Botanist | |
| Almroth Wright | United Kingdom | 30 April 1947 | Bacteriologist | The Unexpurgated Case against Woman Suffrage |
| Riichi Yokomitsu | Japan | 30 December 1947 | Writer | |
| Eduard von Zambaur | Austria | 10 October 1947 | Orientalist | Die Münzprägungen des Islams |
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 | United Kingdom | 4 June 1967 | Writer, editor | My Dog Tulip, We Think the World of You |
| Ciro Alegría |  Peru | 17 February 1967 | Journalist, novelist | El mundo es ancho y ajeno |
| Gordon Allport | United States | 9 October 1967 | psychologist | Becoming: Basic Considerations for a Psychology of Personality |
| Norman Angell | United Kingdom | 7 October 1967 | journalist, author, politician | The Great Illusion |
| Tudor Arghezi |  Romania | 14 July 1967 | poet, novelist, essayist | Cuvinte Potrivite, Zdreanță |
| Marcel Aymé | France | 14 October 1967 | Novelist, children's writer, playwright | The passer-through-walls |
| Margaret Ayer Barnes | United States | 25 October 1967 | playwright, novelist, short-story writer | Years of Grace |
| Vladimir Bartol |  Slovenia | 12 September 1967 | Writer | Alamut |
| Frank Bruno |  New Zealand | 12 July 1967 | Writer, cartoonist, boxer | Black Noon at Ngutu, The Hellbuster |
| John Coltrane | United States | 17 July 1967 | Saxophonist, composer | Giant Steps |
| Isaac Deutscher | United Kingdom | 19 August 1967 | Biographer | Stalin: a Political Biography |
| Julien Duvivier | France | 29 October 1967 | film director, screenwriter | Sous le ciel de Paris |
| Ilya Ehrenburg | Russia | 31 August 1967 | writer, journalist, translator | Black Book , The Thaw |
| Sidney Bradshaw Fay | United States | 29 August 1967 | Historian | The Origins of the World War |
| Varian Fry | United States | 13 September 1967 | Journalist | The Peace that Failed, Surrender on Demand |
| Hein Gorny | Germany | 14 June 1967 | Photographer | Collection at Deutsche Fotothek |
| Che Guevara |  Argentina  Cuba | 9 October 1967 | Communist revolutionary, author | Guerrilla Warfare |
| Robert van Gulik |  Netherlands | 24 September 1967 | writer, diplomat, translator | The Chinese Maze Murders |
| Woody Guthrie | United States | 3 October 1967 | singer-songwriter | This Land Is Your Land |
| J. A. Hollo |  Finland | 22 January 1967 | Translator, scholar | |
| Edward Hopper | United States | 15 May 1967 | Painter | Nighthawks |
| Langston Hughes | United States | 22 May 1967 | Writer | The Weary Blues |
| Lajos Kassák |  Hungary | 22 July 1967 | Poet, writer, painter | |
| Margaret Kennedy | United Kingdom | 31 July 1967 | Novelist, playwright | The Constant Nymph , Troy Chimneys |
| Joseph Kesselring | United States | 5 November 1967 | playwright | Arsenic and Old Lace |
| Zoltán Kodály | Hungary | 6 March 1967 | Composer, philosopher, ethnomusicologist | Psalmus Hungaricus |
| Wolfgang Köhler | Germany | 11 June 1967 | Psychologist | The Mentality of Apes , Gestalt Psychology |
| Josefina Lerena Acevedo de Blixen |  Uruguay | 12 November 1967 | Writer, journalist | Reyles |
| Douglas MacLean | United States | 9 July 1967 | actor, writer | Mama Loves Papa |
| René Magritte | Belgium | 15 August 1967 | Painter | The Difficult Crossing , The Treachery of Images |
| John Masefield | United Kingdom | 12 May 1967 | Poet, novelist | The Everlasting Mercy , Sea-Fever |
| André Maurois | France | 9 October 1967 | author | The Silence of Colonel Bramble |
| Carson McCullers | United States | 29 September 1967 | Novelist, playwright, poet | The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter , The Member of the Wedding |
| Edgar Neville | Spain | 23 April 1967 | playwright, film director | |
| Christopher Okigbo |  Nigeria | September 1967 | Writer | |
| J. Robert Oppenheimer | United States | 18 February 1967 | Physicist, professor | |
| Joe Orton | United Kingdom | 9 August 1967 | Playwright | The Ruffian on the Stair , Entertaining Mr Sloane |
| Dorothy Parker | United States | 7 June 1967 | Writer | Enough Rope |
| Violeta Parra | Chile | 5 February 1967 | Composer, songwriter | Gracias a la Vida |
| Arthur Ransome | United Kingdom | 3 June 1967 | Writer, journalist | Swallows and Amazons series |
| Otis Redding | United States | 10 December 1967 | Singer, songwriter | Respect |
| Elmer Rice | United States | 8 May 1967 | playwright | The Adding Machine , Street Scene |
| Gerhard Ritter | Germany | 1 July 1967 | Historian | Luther: Gestalt und Symbol |
| José Martínez Ruiz | Spain | 2 March 1967 | Novelist, essayist, literary critic | La ruta de Don Quijote, La voluntad, Antonio Azorín |
| Carl Sandburg | United States | 22 July 1967 | Poet, writer, journalist | Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, Chicago Poems |
| Siegfried Sassoon | United Kingdom | 1 September 1967 | poet, soldier, writer | Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man |
| Philippa Schuyler | United States | 9 May 1967 | Journalist, pianist | Adventures in Black and White |
| Walter Terence Stace | United Kingdom | 2 August 1967 | Philosopher, academic, | Mysticism and Philosophy |
| Billy Strayhorn | United States | 31 May 1967 | Composer, lyricist | Take the "A" Train , Lush Life |
| Jean Toomer | United States | 30 March 1967 | Poet, novelist | Cane |
| Pavlo Tychyna |  Ukraine | 16 September 1967 | Poet, statesman | |
| Paul Whiteman | United States | 29 December 1967 | Bandleader, composer | Flamin' Mamie |
| Ossip Zadkine | France | 25 November 1967 | Artist | The Destroyed City |
| Wolfgang Zeller | Germany | 11 January 1967 | Composer | |
| João Guimarães Rosa | Brazil | 19 November 1967 | Writer | Sagarana |
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).
Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, 2018 was the last year that no published works would enter the public domain in this jurisdiction. [4] Only unpublished 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. [5]
On February 27, 2018, the video game One Hour One Life was released into the public domain. [6]