When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of creators whose works enter the public domain in 2028. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works is not uniform.

Entering the public domain in countries with life + 70 years

With the exception of Belarus (Life + 50 years) and Spain (which has a copyright term of Life + 80 years for creators that died before 1988), a work enters the public domain in Europe 70 years after the creator's death, if it was published during the creator's lifetime. For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years. In addition, several other countries in the world have a limit of 70 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator.

Names	Country	Birth	Death	Occupation	Notable work
Alfred Döblin	Germany	10 August 1878	26 June 1957	Writer	Berlin Alexanderplatz
Nikos Kazantzakis	Greece	2 March 1883	26 October 1957	Writer	Ασκητική. Salvatores dei, Captain Michalis, The Last Temptation of Christ, Zorba the Greek
František Kupka	Czech Republic	23 September 1871	24 June 1957	Painter	The Cathedral (Katedrála)
Diego Riviera	Mexico	8 December 1886	24 November 1957	Painter	Man at the Crossroads
Jean Sibelius	Finland	8 December 1865	20 September 1957	Composer	List of compositions by Jean Sibelius
Laura Ingalls Wilder	United States	7 February 1867	10 February 1957	Writer	Little House on the Prairie
John von Neumann	Hungary  United States	28 December 1903	8 February 1957	Mathematician, physicist, computer scientist	List of scientific publications by John von Neumann

Countries with life + 60 years

In Bangladesh, India, and Venezuela a work enters the public domain 60 years after the creator's death.

Countries with life + 50 years

In most countries of Africa and Asia, as well as Belarus, Bolivia, New Zealand, Egypt and Uruguay, a work enters the public domain 50 years after the creator's death.

Names	Country	Birth	Death	Occupation	Notable work
Margaret Escott	New Zealand	9 July 1908	15 August 1977	Author	Show Down
Edmond Hamilton	United States	21 October 1904	1 February 1977	Author	Captain Future
Vladimir Nabokov	Russia	22 April 1899	2 July 1977	Author	Lolita
Anaïs Nin	France	21 February 1903	14 January 1977	Author	Delta of Venus
Dennis Wheatley	United Kingdom	8 January 1897	10 November 1977	Author	The Devil Rides Out

Countries with life + 80 years

Spain has a copyright term of life + 80 years for creators that died before 1988. In Colombia and Equatorial Guinea a work enters the public domain 80 years after the creator's death.

United States

Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books published in 1932, films released in 1932, and other works published in 1932, will enter the public domain in 2028.^[1] Sound recordings that were published in 1927 and unpublished works whose authors died in 1957 will also enter the public domain.

Among the films that will enter public domain in 2028 include the original Scarface, The Mummy with Boris Karloff, Tarzan the Ape Man with Johnny Weissmuller, Best Picture Academy Award-winner Grand Hotel, Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express with Marlene Dietrich, Ernst Lubitsch's Trouble in Paradise, The Music Box starring Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Katharine Hepburn's film debut A Bill of Divorcement, Shirley Temple's film debut The Red-Haired Alibi, the earliest still copyright Looney Tunes shorts will enter in public domain this year, Horse Feathers with the Marx Brothers, Tod Browning's Freaks, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr, Jean Renoir's Boudu Saved from Drowning, Yasujirō Ozu's I Was Born, But..., the first Mexican sound film Santa, the oldest surviving Indian sound film Ayodhyecha Raja, Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, and Mickey's Revue with the first appearance of Goofy.

Examples of important literary works entering the public domain include Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, William Faulkner's Light in August, Samuel Becket's Dream of Fair to Middling Women, Graham Greene's Stamboul Train, Ernest Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon, Zelda Fitzgerald's Save Me the Waltz, John Steinbeck's The Pastures of Heaven, Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot detective novel Peril at End House, John Dos Passos's Nineteen Nineteen, Robert E. Howard's first Conan the Barbarian short story The Phoenix on the Sword, Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods, Herge's Tintin in America in its original French unedited black-and-white version and W. E. Johns first Biggles-collection The Camels Are Coming.

Important artworks entering the public domain include Pablo Picasso's Nude in a Black Armchair and Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, Oskar Schlemmer's painting Bauhaus Stairway, Otto Dix's triptych The War, Henri Matisse's mural The Dance II, David Alfaro Siqueiros' fresco América Tropical, Diego Rivera's Detroit Industry Murals, Alberto Giacometti's sculpture The Palace at 4 a.m., photograph Lunch atop a Skyscraper, Man Ray's photograph Larmes and some of the earliest professional photographs of Henri Cartier-Bresson including Behind the Gare Saint-Lazare and Hyères, France

See also

• 1957 in literature and 1977 in literature for deaths of writers
• Public Domain Day
• Creative Commons

References