2026 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 2026. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.

Entering the public domain in 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 For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years. 2026 marks the first year since 2006 that works will enter the public domain in Australia, which changed its copyright term length from a "plus 50" law to a "plus 70" law in 2004. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator that entered the public domain on 1 January 2026.

Entering the public domain in Spain
Spain has a copyright term of life + 80 years for creators that died before 1987. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator that entered the public domain on 1 January 2026.

Countries with life + 60 years
India

Entering the public domain in 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 the creator's death.

United States
Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books published in 1930, films released in 1930, and other works published in 1930, will enter the public domain in 2026. Sound recordings that were published in 1925 will enter the public domain.

Unpublished works whose authors died in 1955 will enter the public domain.

Among the literary works that will enter public domain in 2026 are Dashiell Hammett's detective novel The Maltese Falcon, Agatha Christie's Miss Marple-novel The Murder at the Vicarage, William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying, H. Rider Haggard's final work Belshazzar, Noël Coward's play Private Lives, Milt Gross's graphic novel He Done Her Wrong, Bertold Brecht's play The Decision in its original German, the first appearance of Herge's Tintin in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets in it original French, the first English translation of Franz Kafka's The Castle, the first English translation of Hermann Sudermann's The Excursion to Tilsit and Carolyn Keene's The Secret of the Old Clock and the character Nancy Drew (although only the original 1930 text).

Significant films entering the public domain this year include All Quiet on the Western Front, Greta Garbo's first sound film Anna Christie, Jean Harlow's film debut Hell's Angels, John Wayne's film debut in The Big Trail, The Love Parade, Animal Crackers starring the Marx Brothers, Soup to Nuts featuring an early iteration of The Three Stooges, George Cukor's directorial debut Grumpy, Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel and Morocco, both starring Marlene Dietrich (the first of eight films they made together), G.W. Pabst's Westfront 1918, Robert Siodmak's directorial debut People on Sunday, Jean Vigo's directorial debut À propos de Nice, Luis Buñuel's The Golden Age, the first Italian soundfilm The Sound of Love, the first Polish sound film Niebezpieczny romans, the first Czech sound film Tonka of the Gallows, the first Argentinian sound film Goodbye Argentina and the oldest surviving television broadcast The Man with the Flower in His Mouth. The earliest Betty Boop works will enter into the public domain including Dizzy Dishes. The Disney character Pluto also makes his first appearance, first as an unnamed dog in The Chain Gang, and later called Rover in The Picnic.

The first comic appearances of Hergé's Quick & Flupke and Chic Young's Blondie will also enter the public domain.

Some of the better-known works of art entering the public domain are Grant Wood's painting American Gothic, Piet Mondrian's Composition with Red Blue and Yellow, Frederick Judd Waugh's painting Wild Weather, José Clemente Orozco's fresco Prometheus, Ansel Adams' photobook Taos Pueblo with writing by Mary Hunter Austin, Martin Munkácsi's photograph Three Boys at Lake Tanganyika, Edward Weston's photograph Pepper No. 30, early prints of M.C. Escher (The Bridge and Castrovalva), and the first designs of the Brno chair and the Tugendhat chair.