Public Domain Day (PDD) is an observance of when copyrights expire and works enter into the public domain.[1] This legal transition of copyright works into the public domain usually happens every year on January 1 based on the individual copyright laws of each country.[1]
The observance of a "Public Domain Day" was initially informal; the earliest known mention was in 2004 by Wallace McLean (a Canadian public domain activist),[2] with support for the idea echoed by Lawrence Lessig.[3] Several websites list the authors whose works are entering the public domain each January 1. There are activities in countries around the world by various organizations all under the banner Public Domain Day.
A public domain photo from a public domain celebration in 2016 (Brussels, Felix Reda speaking)
Copyright protection terms are typically described as expiring a number of years after the end of the calendar year when the author died (post mortem auctorisorpma).[4][5] Durations vary by country; in many jurisdictions, including the US and European Union, copyright usually lasts 70 years pma.[6][5] In such countries, the works of authors who died in 1954 will pass into the public domain on January 1, 2025. These works become fully available so that anyone can access and use them for any purpose, without authorization.[5]
Since public domain rights vary based on jurisdiction, the passage of a work into the public domain is not worldwide.[7] In the United States, no additional published works entered the public domain automatically from 1999 to 2018.[7][8] Australia's copyright scheme is similarly restrictive, with no additional public domain entrances from 2005 until 2026.[9] Each year, most European countries see various works passing into the public domain, as do Canada and New Zealand.[3][5][7]
Public Domain Day celebration in Poland (2008)Public Domain Day 2020 celebration in Indonesia
There is no explicit time when Public Domain Day began being observed (it was mentioned by Lawrence Lessig in 2004[3]), but in recent years it has been mentioned by Project Gutenberg[12] and has been promoted by Creative Commons.[13] Public Domain Day events have been hosted on various dates in Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Israel.[14][15]
In January 2011, to celebrate Public Domain Day 2011, Open Knowledge Foundation launched The Public Domain Review, a web-based review of works which have entered the public domain.[16][17]
Celebriamo il Giorno del Pubblico Dominio e la Cultura Libera, Grosseto
France: Journée du domaine public, Paris
In later years, Public Domain Day events have been organized by Communia, which also maintained the (now defunct) publicdomainday.org website.[citation needed]
Public Domain Day in 2019 was significant in the United States as it was the first year to have any meaningful copyright expirations there since the event's establishment: a 20-year freeze had been imposed in 1998 with the passage of the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act.[23] Several activities were carried to celebrate the event, including a special section at the MIT Libraries for public domain works[24] and the "Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain"[25] that took place at the Internet Archive with the presence of members of Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Wikimedia Foundation, among other scholars like Pam Samuelson, Lawrence Lessig and James Boyle.[citation needed]
In 2022 in the United States, in addition to works published in 1926 that had had their copyright renewed, about 400,000 sound recordings from before 1923 also passed into the public domain under the CLASSICS Act.[26]
On 2024's Public Domain Day, all published works from 1928 entered the public domain. This included the animated short film Steamboat Willie, featuring Mickey Mouse, a subject of significant copyright interest. The inclusion of this work was a landmark event, ending years of controversies, although Disney might still claim trademark rights on Mickey Mouse. Additionally, all sound recordings from 1923 entered into the public domain.[27] No sound recordings had entered the public domain in 2023, as all pre-1923 recordings already entered into the public domain in 2022. However, recordings from 1923–1946 enter the public domain on January 1 of the year after their 100th year after publication. Thus, a recording published in June 1923, for example, would have entered the public domain on January 1, 2024.[28]
