From the Center For the Study of the Public Domain (Duke University):
Public Domain Day is January 1st of every year. If you live in Canada or New Zealand, January 1st 2018 would be the day when the works of René Magritte, Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, Jean Toomer, Edward Hopper, and Alice B. Toklas enter the public domain. So would the musical compositions of John Coltrane, Billy Strayhorn, Paul Whiteman, Otis Redding, and Woody Guthrie. Canadians can now add a wealth of books, poems, paintings, and musical works by these authors to online archives, without asking permission or violating the law. And in Europe, the works of Hugh Lofting (the Doctor DoLittle books), William Moulton Marston (creator of Wonder Woman!), and Emma Orczy (the Scarlet Pimpernel series) will emerge into the public domain, where anyone can use them in their own books or movies. (You can find a great celebration of some of these authors here.)
Read the Complete Post #1
More from the Center For the Study of the Public Domain (Duke University) About Public Domain Day 2018 in the U.S.:
Current US law extends copyright for 70 years after the date of the author’s death, and corporate “works-for-hire” are copyrighted for 95 years after publication. But prior to the 1976 Copyright Act (which became effective in 1978), the maximum copyright term was 56 years—an initial term of 28 years, renewable for another 28 years. Under those laws, works published in 1961 would enter the public domain on January 1, 2018, where they would be “free as the air to common use.” Under current copyright law, we’ll have to wait until 2057. And no published works will enter our public domain until 2019.
Read the Complete Post #2
Includes Examples of What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2018
See Also: Public Domain FAQ
See Also: Class of 2018 (Public Domain Day 2018) (via Public Domain Review)
See Also: Public Domain Day 2017 Post
See Also: Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States (via Cornell U. Library)
See Also: OutofCopyright.eu
About Gary Price
