The following is a list of creators whose works entered the public domain on 1 January 2022. When copyright expires in a creative work, it enters the public domain. Since copyright terms vary from country to country, the copyright status of a work may not be the same in all countries.
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 its creator's death, if it was published during their lifetime. For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first retain the publication rights for 25 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator's that entered the public domain on 1 January 2022.
Other countries with a copyright term of life + 70 years are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, Peru, Paraguay, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Japan, Russia, Indonesia, Israel, Armenia, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Singapore, South Korea, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Senegal, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.
NamesCountryDeathOccupationNotable work Louis Adamic Writer Dynamite: The Story of Class Violence in America Bartlett Adamson Journalist, writer, and political activist Jyoti Prasad Agarwala Film director, playwright, writer Joymoti Choudhry Rahmat Ali Jurist Pakistan Declaration Muhammad Ali Writer Egbert Van Alstyne Composer "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree", "Pretty Baby" Aram Andonian Writer The Memoirs of Naim Bey Leopold Andrian Writer Henry W. Armstrong Composer Sweet Adeline Numa Ayrinhac Painter Resurrección María de Azkue Writer Mohammad-Taqi Bahar Poet R. H. Barlow Writer, anthropologist Sarah Jane Baines Feminist, suffragette, social reformer Jacques de Baroncelli Film director Gaspar Agüero Barreras Pianist, composer Pramathesh Barua Film director, actor, writer Daisy Bates Journalist, welfare worker Celadet Alî Bedirxan 1951 Writer, linguist Frank Weston Benson Painter List of works by Frank Weston Benson Jørgen Bentzon Composer Konstantin Biebl Poet Leo Birinski Playwright, screenwriter, film director Dorothea Foster Black Painter and printmaker Algernon Blackwood Journalist, writer Incredible Adventures, "The Willows", "The Wendigo" and The Doll and One Other Francisco Boix Photographer Photographs of Mauthausen concentration camp Ivanoe Bonomi Politician Stephen Bonsal Journalist, writer Tadeusz Borowski Writer, journalist Herman Charles Bosman Writer Alfred-Alphonse Bottiau Sculptor James Bridie Playwright, screenwriter, physician Hermann Broch Writer The Sleepwalkers, The Death of Virgil Gelett Burgess Writer "Purple Cow" Abraham Cahan Writer The Rise of David LevinskyAndrew Caldecott Writer and British colonial administrator Amy Carmichael Writer John Alden Carpenter Composer Ethel Carrick Artist Émile Chartier Writer Alphonse de Châteaubriant Writer The Keynote, La Brière Peter Cheyney Writer Lemmy Caution, Slim Callaghan Ben Chifley Politician Cho Ki-chon Poet Gendün Chöphel 1951 Writer, poet Al Christie Film director Halfdan Cleve Composer Christabel Cockerell Painter Edith Coleman Naturalist Gustav Cords Composer Cara David Educator, feminist, social reformer Wilfrid de Glehn Painter Nirupama Devi Writer Enrique Santos Discépolo Composer, director Hans Andrias Djurhuus Poet, writer Lloyd C. Douglas Writer, pastor Magnificent Obsession, The Robe Georgios Drossinis Writer Frank DuMond Illustrator, painter József Egry 1951 Painter Mário Eloy Painter Anastasia Eristavi-Khoshtaria Writer John Erskine Writer, composer The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent Poet Georgy Fedotov Writer Fei Mu Film director Spring in a Small Town Jerzy Fitelberg Composer Kristo Floqi Playwright, politician John Flynn Minister, aviator Josef Bohuslav Foerster Composer List of compositions by Josef Bohuslav Foerster Robert J. Flaherty Filmmaker Nanook of the North Pietro Frosini Musician, composer Gao Jianfu 1951 Painter André Gide Writer Bibliography of André Gide Bert Grant Composer María Grever Composer "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" René Guenon Philosopher and Sufi Scholar The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of the Times Jacinto Guerrero Composer James Norman Hall Writer Mutiny on the Bounty Ebbe Hamerik Composer Tamiki Hara Writer Summer Flower Fumiko Hayashi Writer Bangiku Józef Hecht Printmaker, painter Sadegh Hedayat Writer, poet The Blind Owl, The Stray Dog Thomas N. Heffron Film director Herman Hupfeld Songwriter "As Time Goes By", "Let's Put Out the Lights (and Go to Sleep)" Jenő Illés Film director Ernest Ludvig Ipsen Painter George Jeske Film director Tor Jonsson Poet Gustave-Henri Jossot Illustrator, painter Robert Kahn Composer Alfrēds Kalniņš Composer Karl Maria Kaufmann Archeologist Kim Dong-in Writer Kim Myeong-sun Writer Kitawaki Noboru Painter Tyra Kleen Writer Georg af Klercker Film director South of the HighwayKatarzyna KobroAvant-garde sculptor Alexander Krein Composer Kwee Tek Hoay Writer List of works by Kwee Tek Hoay Constant Lambert Composer List of compositions by Constant Lambert Louis Lavelle Philosopher Ernestina Lecuona Pianist, composer Henri-René Lenormand Playwright Sinclair Lewis Writer Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith J. C. Leyendecker Illustrator The Arrow Collar Man Heinz von Lichberg Writer "Lolita" Ana Aurora do Amaral Lisboa (pt) Poet Benito Lynch Writer The Caranchos of Florida, The Englishman of the Bones, The Romance of a GauchoRichard Malden Biblical scholar, editor, author of ghost stories Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim Politician, memoirist Homero Manzi Writer Edwin L. Marin Film director Konstantin Märska Film director Nellie McClung Writer Nikolai Medtner Composer List of compositions by Nikolai Medtner Oscar Micheaux Writer, director Hasrat Mohani Independence activist, poet Giuseppe Mulè Composer Takashi Nagai Writer The Bells of Nagasaki Nam Cao 1951 Writer Ștefan Neaga Composer Anthem of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic Ndoc Nikaj Writer Ivor Novello Composer "Keep the Home Fires Burning" Selim Palmgren Composer, pianist Pyotr Pavlenko Writer Scott Pembroke Film director Brian Penton Journalist, novelist Landtakers Felix Petyrek Composer Andrei Platonov Writer The Foundation Pit Ľudmila Podjavorinská Writer, poet Clara Katharina Pollaczek Writer Voydan Popgeorgiev – Chernodrinski Playwright, writer Macedonian Blood Wedding George Henry Powell Songwriter "Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit-Bag" Paula von Preradović Writer National anthem of Austria James Peter Quinn Painter Assen Razcvetnikov Writer Godofredo Rangel Writer, translator Gholamreza Rashid-Yasemi 1951 Poet Cattamanchi Ramalinga Reddy Educator, writer Henri Rivière Painter Sigmund Romberg Composer Phil Rosen Film director Georges Hanna Sabbagh 1951 Painter Pedro Salinas Poet Harry Schmidt Mathematician Artur Schnabel Classical pianist, composer Artur Schnabel's recordings of Beethoven's piano sonatas Arnold Schoenberg Composer, music theorist List of compositions by Arnold Schoenberg Percival Serle Writer Robert Seton-Watson Historian Levon Shant Playwright Angelos Sikelianos Poet, playwright S. Sylvan Simon Film director Houcine Slaoui 1951 Musician John Sloan Painter Pamela Colman Smith Illustrator Rider–Waite tarot deck Henry De Vere Stacpoole Ireland Writer The Blue Lagoon Paul L. Stein Film director Arthur Szyk Illustrator Abanindranath Tagore Painter, writer Maila Talvio Writer Mary Tannahill Painter Nikoghayos Tigranian Composer Timrava Writer Julio Torres Mayorga Musician and songwriter "Los Camarones" Marcel Tournier Composer Walter Trier Illustrator Illustration of Emil and the Detectives and Lilliput covers Manuel Ugarte 1951 Writer Jan Valtin Writer, covert agent Maxence Van der Meersch Writer Vsevolod Vishnevsky Playwright Henrik Visnapuu Poet Will Vodery Composer Volodymyr Vynnychenko Writer, playwright Richard Wallace Film director Jean-Jacques Waltz Illustrator Nik Welter Writer Ludwig Wittgenstein Philosopher Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Philosophical Investigations Wols Painter, photographer Gregorios Xenopoulos Writer Miyamoto Yuriko Writer Corrado Zoli Writer Hermynia Zur Mühlen Writer, translator
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 Fani Badayuni Poet Chandradhar Barua Poet, novelist Charu Chandra Bhattacharya Scientific writer Roussan Camille Poet, journalist Joanna Cannan Writer, detective novelist Louis-Ferdinand Céline Novelist, pamphleteer Blaise Cendrars Novelist, poet Bhupendranath Datta Poet, novelist Hilda Doolittle Poet, novelist, memoirist Mazo de la Roche Novelist Gertrude Minnie Faulding Children's writer and novelist Jessie Redmon Fauset Editor, writer, educator Olga Forsh Dramatist, novelist, memoirist Leonhard Frank Writer Dashiell Hammett Crime writer, screenwriter Hazel Heald Pulp fiction writer Ernest Hemingway Novelist George S. Kaufman Dramatist, critic Oliver Onions Novelist, ghost story writer Professor Nalam Krishna Rao 1961 Magazine editor E. Arnot Robertson Novelist Mihail Sadoveanu Novelist Peyami Safa Journalist, writer Saralabala Sarkar Novelist Sachin Sengupta Playwright R. P. Sethu Pillai Lawyer, professor Nalin Vilochan Sharma Professor Clark Ashton Smith Writer Vattikota Alwar Swamy Human rights activist, journalist Jailu Lopala Rathindranath Tagore Agronomist Dorothy Thompson Journalist James Thurber Humorist Suryakant Tripathi Poet, short story writer Hindi translation of Anandmath William Troy Writer, educator
Countries with life + 50 years 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 its creator's death.
NamesCountryDeathOccupationNotable work Kate Aitken Broadcaster Books Ya'qoub Al-Oudat Poet, writer Biography of Mustafa Wahbi et-TullJohn Beaglehole 10 October 1971HistorianThe Life of Captain James CookPacho Benavides 18 December 1971Musician, composer"Veleñita"James Boswell 15 April 1971ArtistThe Artist's DilemmaJohn W. CampbellAuthor and editorWho Goes There? Brock Chisholm Psychiatrist WorksAugust Derleth Writer August Derleth bibliography Abd El-Razzak El-Sanhuri Legal scholar Al-Waseet fil Qanun Composer Helmy Halim Film director Our Beautiful Days Samuel Alfred Haynes 1971 Civil rights activist, poet Land of the Free Usmar Ismail Film director Darah dan Doa Ub Iwerks Cartoonist, film producer Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Mickey Mouse, Flip the Frog Abdul Jabbar Jomard Historian, Poet Paul Lévy Mathematician Calcul des ProbabilitésC. C. MacAppSF author"The Mercurymen"Reginald Alec MartinChildren's writerKemloR. A. K. Mason 13 July 1971PoetWorks Janka Maŭr Children's writer, translatorGhulam Rasool Mehr Scholar Books Jim Morrison Musician The Doors discography Ogden Nash Poet Bibliography of Ogden Nash Andre Ryder Musician 1971 Poet Stevie Smith Poet, writer Works Igor Stravinsky Composer List of compositions by Igor Stravinsky Frank Underhill Historian Upper Canadian Politics in the 1850s Philip Wylie AuthorGladiator David Law (cartoonist) CartoonistDennis the Menace and Gnasher, Beryl the Peril
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 brought some 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).
Countries with life + 80 years