Public Domain Explained: When Copyright Expires and Who Owns It

Every January 1, librarians and archivists around the world celebrate something called Public Domain Day. A fresh batch of books, songs, films, and artwork enters the public domain, free for anyone to copy, sell, adapt, or remix. In 2026, that batch included works by authors who died in 1955, which means Albert Einstein’s later writings, James Dean’s films, and a great deal of post-war literature became free to use in life + 70 jurisdictions.

For working creators, the public domain is both a gift and a trap. A gift because it’s the largest free library of source material in existence. A trap because the rules about what’s actually in it are more complicated than the elevator-pitch summary suggests, and getting it wrong can cost you.

Here’s the real picture.

What public domain actually means

A work in the public domain belongs to nobody. There’s no copyright owner. There’s nobody to ask permission from. There’s nobody to pay royalties to. Anyone can copy the work, sell copies, adapt it into new media, build derivative works on top of it, and use any portion of it in their own creative output.

This is different from a “free” work like one released under a Creative Commons license. A Creative Commons work is still copyrighted; the author has simply granted permissions to the world. The author can still enforce the terms of the license. A public domain work has no enforceable terms because there’s no one with standing to enforce them.

A work can be in the public domain for one of several reasons:

Its copyright term has expired
It was never eligible for copyright in the first place (facts, ideas, government works in some jurisdictions)
The author explicitly dedicated it to the public domain (rare but possible in some jurisdictions)
Its copyright was forfeited under old rules (US works pre-1978 had registration and renewal requirements)

The most common path is the first. Copyright eventually expires, and the work falls into the public domain by operation of law.

When works enter the public domain

This is where it gets jurisdiction-specific. Each country applies its own rules to determine when a foreign work’s copyright has expired within its borders.

In life + 70 jurisdictions (US, EU, UK, Canada, Australia, most of the major markets), an individual-authored work enters the public domain on January 1 of the year after the 70th anniversary of the author’s death. An author who died on March 15, 1955 had their works enter the US public domain on January 1, 2026.

In life + 50 jurisdictions (China, South Africa, parts of the developing world), the wait is shorter. The same author’s works might have entered the public domain there decades earlier.

In life + 100 jurisdictions (Mexico), the wait is longer.

For the country-by-country breakdown of copyright terms, see our duration guide.

For works for hire, anonymous works, and corporate-authored works, the calculation runs from publication or creation rather than from a death date. In the US, those works enter the public domain 95 years after publication. So US works published in 1930 entered the public domain on January 1, 2026.

What just entered the public domain

As of 2026 in the US (life + 70 from author’s death, or 95 years from publication for works for hire):

Works by authors who died in 1955 are now in the public domain in life + 70 jurisdictions. This includes Albert Einstein (post-1925 writings), Thomas Mann’s last works, José Ortega y Gasset’s later philosophy, Walter White (the NAACP leader, not the TV character).
US works first published in 1930 are in the US public domain. This includes some 1930 novels, films, and recordings.
A delayed wave of works from the early 1920s that had been kept in copyright by various US extensions also continues to clear into the public domain.

The new entries each January are the focus of an annual flurry of articles, but the much larger fact is the existing public domain library. Every novel published before about 1929 in the US is now public domain. Most of the 19th-century literary canon. Most pre-WWI music. Vast amounts of art, film, photography, and scientific writing.

The complications

Several real-world traps make public-domain status more complex than the rule suggests.

Edition copyrights

A novel by Jane Austen is in the public domain. The 2018 Penguin Classics edition of Pride and Prejudice is not. The publisher added an introduction, footnotes, possibly new translations of foreign quotations, and other editorial work. Those additions are themselves copyrighted, even though the underlying text isn’t.

If you copy the public-domain text from a modern edition, you’re fine. If you copy the introduction or the footnotes, you’re infringing on the editor’s copyright.

The practical workaround: use a clean source, like a Project Gutenberg version, that doesn’t include any modern editorial additions.

Translations

A translation of a public-domain work is a new copyrighted work. The English translation of a Russian novel by Tolstoy might be from 2015, and that translation has its own life + 70 timeline running from the translator’s death. The original Russian text is public domain. The 2015 English translation isn’t.

If you want public-domain access in English, you’ll need a translation that’s old enough to have entered the public domain itself, or an explicitly public-domain or Creative Commons translation.

Adaptations and derivative works

A film adaptation of a public-domain novel has its own copyright. The 1948 Olivier film of Hamlet is in the public domain because of its age. A 2022 film adaptation of Hamlet would still be in copyright, even though Shakespeare’s original is centuries past expiry.

You can make your own new adaptation of a public-domain work. You can’t copy someone else’s adaptation just because the original underlying work is public domain.

Restored copyrights (the URAA situation)

This one mostly affects foreign works in the US, and it’s the trap that’s caught more people than any other. Under the Uruguay Round Agreements Act of 1994, the US restored copyright in certain foreign works that had previously fallen into the public domain due to non-compliance with old US formalities. Those works are once again copyrighted in the US.

So a work that’s clearly public domain in its country of origin might still be under copyright in the US under restored protection. If you’re publishing for the US market, you can’t always rely on the foreign public-domain status of older works.

Sound recordings versus compositions

A composition (the underlying song) and a sound recording (a specific performance of it) are separately copyrighted. A 1900 composition might be in the public domain, but a 1950 performance of that composition is still under sound recording copyright. You need both elements to be public domain to use a particular recording.

This trips up filmmakers and content creators all the time. The song is old. The recording is recent. The recording is what you’d be copying, and it’s still owned by someone.

The public domain reservoir

Despite all the complications, the public domain is enormous. Every classic novel pre-1929 in the US. Almost all of Shakespeare. The complete works of Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and most other composers who died before the early 20th century. Most pre-war photographs. Most 19th-century scientific writing. Vast amounts of folk music, traditional stories, and historical material.

For working creators, this is a free creative reservoir. You can write a novel based on a public-domain novel. You can record a public-domain song. You can use a public-domain image as the cover of your book. You can sample, remix, adapt, and build on any of it.

Some of the most successful creative works of the last several decades are public-domain derivatives. Wicked is built on the public-domain Wizard of Oz. The Great Gatsby has spawned numerous adaptations now that it’s in the US public domain. Sherlock Holmes pastiches are a small industry. Every “Pride and Prejudice plus zombies” or “Sense and Sensibility plus sea monsters” book is built on free source material.

What government works do

In the US, federal government works are in the public domain by statute. Federal employees’ work in the scope of their employment cannot be copyrighted. So NASA photos, USGS maps, National Park Service publications, and government reports are all free to use without restriction.

Other countries handle this differently. UK Crown copyright applies to government works for 50 years after publication. Some EU jurisdictions have similar restrictions. Don’t assume government works are automatically free outside the US.

For state and local government works in the US, the rules vary by state. Most state laws follow the federal model. Some don’t.

Practical advice for using public-domain material

A few practical rules for working creators who want to build on public-domain source material:

Use clean sources. Project Gutenberg for text, IMSLP for sheet music, Wikimedia Commons for images, the Internet Archive for films. These hosts have already done the legal analysis and are sources you can rely on.
Check both the underlying work and any specific edition. The original is public domain. The 2010 Penguin paperback you happen to own probably isn’t. Use the original or a clean reproduction.
For US use, check URAA restoration. A foreign work that’s public domain in its origin country may have restored US copyright. The US Copyright Office has resources for checking this.
Be careful with sound recordings. They’re a separate copyright from the underlying composition. A public-domain song doesn’t mean a public-domain recording of it.
Your derivative work is your copyright. When you make a new adaptation of a public-domain work, that adaptation is yours, with all the standard copyright protections.

If you want to make your own work part of the public domain explicitly, some jurisdictions allow this (the US recognizes a public domain dedication; some other countries don’t, because their moral rights provisions can’t be waived). Creative Commons offers a CC0 dedication that approximates public domain status as closely as the law allows.

The public domain isn’t a backwater. It’s an actively useful library that’s still expanding every year. Working creators who know the rules can use it as raw material in ways their less-informed competitors can’t. For more on what copyright actually protects and doesn’t, see the main fundamentals guide.

Public Domain Explained: When Does Copyright Actually Expire?