2025 in public domain

When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of creators whose works enter the public domain in 2025. 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 For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years.

Countries with life + 60 years
In Bangladesh, India, and Venezuela a work enters the public domain 60 years after the creator's death.

Countries with life + 50 years
In most countries of Africa and Asia, as well as Belarus, Bolivia and New Zealand, a work enters the public domain 50 years after the creator's death.

Countries with life + 80 years
Spain has a copyright term of life + 80 years for creators that died before 1987. In Colombia and Equatorial Guinea a work enters the public domain 80 years after the creator's death.

Australia and Canada
In 2004 copyright in Australia changed from a "plus 50" law to a "plus 70" law, in line with the United States and the European Union. But the change was not made retroactive (unlike the 1995 change in the European Union which brought some (British and possibly other) 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 will come out of copyright until 1 January 2026 (those who died in 1955).

Similarly, Canada amended its Copyright Act in 2022 from a "plus 50" law to a "plus 70" law, coming into force on December 30, 2022, but does not revive expired copyright. No more new Canadian authors will come out of copyright until 1 January 2043 (those who died in 1972). Crown copyright was not changed, thus any government works published in 1974 will enter the public domain in 2025.

United States
Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books and other works published in 1929 and films released in 1929 will enter the public domain in 2025. Sound recordings that were published in 1924 will also enter the public domain. The characters Buck Rogers, Captain Easy and Popeye the Sailor Man will enter the public domain in 2025. The same happens for the first Tarzan strips illustrated by Hal Foster that were launched in 1929.

Unpublished works whose authors died in 1954 will enter the public domain in 2025.

Among the films that will enter public domain in 2025 are the following:


 * The Cocoanuts, the first film of the Marx Brothers
 * The Broadway Melody, the second recipient of the Academy Award for Best Picture
 * Spite Marriage, Buster Keaton's final full-length feature as a director
 * Welcome Danger, Harold Lloyd's first sound film
 * On with the Show!, the first sound film in color
 * The Taming of the Shrew, the first Shakespeare film adaptation with sound
 * Hallelujah, the first Hollywood film with an all-black cast
 * The Cock-Eyed World, sequel to What Price Glory? (1926)
 * Show Boat, containing some songs from the 1927 musical
 * Blackmail, Alfred Hitchcock's first sound film
 * Atlantic, the first sound film about the Titanic disaster
 * The Return of Sherlock Holmes, the first sound film to star the character of Sherlock Holmes
 * Behind That Curtain, the first sound film to star the character Charlie Chan
 * The Mysterious Dr. Fu Manchu, the first sound film to star the character of Fu Manchu
 * Bulldog Drummond, the first sound film to star the character Bulldog Drummond
 * The Three Masks (Les trois masques), the first French sound film
 * Land Without Women (Das Land ohne Frauen), the first German sound film
 * Woman in the Moon (Frau im Mond), directed by Fritz Lang
 * Pandora’s Box (Die Büchse der Pandora) and Diary of a Lost Girl (Tagebuch einer Verlorenen), both directed by G. W. Pabst and starring Louise Brooks
 * Drifters, a documentary film about Britain's North Sea herring fishery
 * Un chien Andalou, directed by Luis Bunuel and cowritten by Salvador Dali
 * The Mysteries of the Chateau of Dice (Les mystères du Château du Dé), directed by Man Ray
 * Rain, a Dutch documentary short
 * Sound versions of the Mickey Mouse cartoons The Gallopin' Gaucho, Plane Crazy and The Karnival Kid (in which Mickey speaks his first words), and the first Silly Symphony cartoons, including The Skeleton Dance.

Examples of important literary works entering the public domain include Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms, William Seabrook's novel The Magic Island (the first book to introduce the concept of a zombie). Ellery Queen's detective novel The Roman Hat Mystery, Margery Allingham detective novel The Crime at Black Dudley, the first English translation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Alfred Döblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz in its original German, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's novel Pather Panchali in its original Bengali, Lynd Ward's graphic novel Gods' Man, William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury, Virginia Woolf's essay A Room of One's Own, Ludwig Wittgenstein's essay Some Remarks on Logical Form and the first part of the 14th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (full in public domain by 2029).

Important artworks entering the public domain include René Magritte's painting The Treachery of Images, Salvador Dali's paintings The Great Masturbator and The Accommodations of Desire, Wassily Kandinsky's painting Upward, Edward Hopper's painting Chop Suey, Kawamura Kiyoo's painting Founding of the Nation, Julio Romero de Torres' painting La Fuensanta, August Sander's photograph Berlin Coal Carrier and the first design of the Barcelona chair.