Every year a new set of works enters the public domain and becomes free for people to reuse for any purpose

Next year’s will include J.R.R. Tolkien, Hank Williams, Pablo Picasso and many others.

Every year a new set of works enters the public domain and becomes free for people to reuse for any purpose, depending on the copyright laws of your area.

The Public Domain Review, a nonprofit online journal, gathered the most prominent works that will enter the public domain next year, which were made by: 

• Copyright owners who died in 1953 for countries with a copyright term of “life plus 70 years” — including New Zealand, and most of Africa and Asia. 
• Copyright owners who died in 1973 for countries with a term of “life plus 50 years” — including New Zealand and most of Africa and Asia.
• Films and books (including artworks featured) were published in 1928 for the United States.

Most prominent works, films, books that will enter public domain in 2024

Films

• “October: Ten Days That Shook the World” directed by Sergei Eisenstein (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• “The Passion of Joan of Arc” directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer (entering public domain in the U.S.)

Novels, books, poetry

• Karl Blossfeldt’s “Urformen der Kunst” (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• Wanda Gág’s “Millions of Cats” (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• W. E. B. Du Bois’s “Dark Princess” (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• D. H. Lawrence’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• André Breton’s “Nadja” (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• Siegfried Sassoon’s “Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man” (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• Evelyn Waugh’s “Decline and Fall” (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando: A Biography” (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• A. A. Milne’s “The House at Pooh Corner” (entering public domain in the U.S.)
• Federico García Lorca’s “Gypsy Ballads” (entering public domain in the U.S.)

Artists, writers, filmmakers

• Pablo Picasso (entering public domain in countries with copyright of “life plus 50 years”)
• Dylan Thomas (entering public domain in countries with copyright of “life plus 70 years”)
• Cecil Hepworth (entering public domain in countries with copyright of “life plus 70 years”)
• J. R. R. Tolkien (entering public domain in countries with copyright of “life plus 50 years”)
• Edmund Dulac (entering public domain in countries with copyright of “life plus 70 years”)
• Hank Williams (entering public domain in countries with copyright of “life plus 70 years”)