Every year, on the 1^st of January, new material enters the public domain, making the works free to use, share and reuse. Due to differing copyright durations in each country, there is no single public domain – sometimes a work can be in public domain in one country while still being protected by copyright in another.

This year, we will have works entering the public domain from:

• People who died in 1954, for countries with a copyright protection term of lifetime of the creator + 70 years (UK, Russia, most of the EU)
• People who died in 1974, for countries with a copyright protection of lifetime of the creator + 50 years (New Zealand, most of Africa and Asia)
• Films and books as well as artworks published in 1929 in the United States.

Before we dive into the artists and works which have entered the public domain, lets have a look at what the public domain is.

The public domain is a term used to describe works for which copyright protection has expired or where the creator has decided to relinquish copyright protection. In the UK, the standard term for copyright protection is lifetime of the creator plus 70 years.

It is important to highlight here that new publications of public domain materials, will receive new copyright protection. As such, if you want to use material which is in the public domain, you have to be careful to use the material to which the copyright has expired and not any recent publications.

As an example, Mickey Mouse’s first depiction in “Steamboat Willie” has entered the public domain in 2024, however, newer representations of Mickey and Minnie are still protected. Be aware that some cartoon characters are also protected as trademarks, which does not expire. Currently, Disney has over 500 trademarks at EU level.

Let’s have a look at some names and works that have entered the public domain this year.

And many, many more works. We also have some more Mickey and Minnie Mouse versions entering the public domain, as well as Popeye and Tintin, the 1929 versions of these characters to be precise.

If you would like to read more about the public domain, Duke University Law School, explains it very well in their blog post Public Domain Day 2025. The blog post is mainly about material becoming available in the US.

More about the beauty of the public domain can be found on The Public Domain Review webpage.