Happy Public Domain Day 2025

Montage of materials moving into the public domain in 2025. Duke Law Center for the Study of the Public Domain (Internet Archive Blogs).

Happy Public Domain Day 2025. 

On this year's Public Domain Day (which falls each January 1st), the works of two titans of 20th-century art, Frida Kahlo and Henri Matisse, plus thousands of other artistic works, will enter the public domain.

As written in the blog "The Public Domain Review":

"Due to differing copyright laws around the world, there is no one single public domain, but there are three main types of copyright term for historical works which cover most cases. For these three systems, newly entering the public domain today are:

• works by people who died in 1954, for countries with a copyright term of “life plus 70 years” (relevant in UK, most of the EU, and South America);
• works by people who died in 1974, for countries with a term of “life plus 50 years” (relevant to most of Africa and Asia);
• films and books (incl. artworks featured) published in 1929 (relevant solely to the United States)."

As described by RTÉ, other works include animated characters Popeye the Sailor and Tintin. Also now free of copyright is Auguste Lumière, and his animated films. The list of various artists, writers, photographers, film-makers, and other creators whose work has entered the public domain is long and includes people from many countries and genres. It's worth a look, if only to see what was new 70 years ago.