At the beginning of each year, on January 1, a new series of works enter the public domain and become free to enjoy, share, and reuse for any purpose. Due to varying copyright laws around the world, there is no single public domain – and here we focus on the three most prominent. The new one to enter the public domain in 2026 will be:
- Works created by people who died in 1955 for countries with the copyright term of “life plus 70 years” (for example the UK, Russia, most of the EU and South America);
- For countries with a “life plus 50 years” life expectancy (such as New Zealand, and most of Africa and Asia) the number of people who died in 1975;
- Films and books (including featured artwork) published in the United States in the 1930s.
Find our top pick of what 2026 has in store for us, in our advent-style calendar below. Each day, as we move into December, we’ll open a new window to reveal our highlights! They will all be unveiled by Public Domain Day on January 1st – look forward to a special blogpost from us on that day. (And, of course, if you want to jump right in and find out the huge group of new entrants for yourself, just visit the link above).
<a href