When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of creators whose works entered the public domain in 2021. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.
With the exception of Belarus (where the copyright protection is life + 50 years) and Spain (which has a copyright term of life + 80 years for creators that died before 1987), 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 For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator that entered the public domain on 1 January 2021.
Spain (for creators that died before 1987), Colombia and Equatorial Guinea have a copyright term of life + 80 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes one notable work that entered the public domain on 1 January 2021 for each creator.
In Bangladesh, India, and Venezuela a work enters the public domain 60 years after the creator's death.
In most countries of Africa and Asia, as well as Belarus, Bolivia, Canada, New Zealand, Egypt and Uruguay, a work enters the public domain 50 years after the creator's death.
In 2004 copyright in Australia changed from a "plus 50" law to a "plus 70" law, in line with the United States and the European Union. However, the change was not made retroactive (unlike the 1995 change in the European Union which brought the works of those who died from 1925 to 1944 back into copyright). Hence the work of an author who died before 1955 is normally in the public domain in Australia; but the copyright of authors was extended to 70 years after death for those who died in 1955 or later, and no more Australian authors would come out of copyright until 1 January 2026 (those who died in 1955).
Unpublished works by authors who died in 1950 entered the public domain. Any published literary, artistic, dramatic, or musical work (other than computer programs) by a not generally known author (anonymous or pseudonymous) from 1950 also entered the public domain.
Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books published in 1925, films released in 1925, and other works published in 1925, entered the public domain in 2021. While sound recordings in general remained copyrighted (this was their last year before entering the public domain under the Music Modernization Act), all musical compositions published in 1925 entered the public domain in 2021. Additionally, unpublished works whose authors died in 1950 entered the public domain.
Notable books that entered the public domain in 2021 in the United States include The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway, The Trial by Franz Kafka in its original German, An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser, Manhattan Transfer by John Dos Passos, The New Negro by Alain Locke (a collection of works from such writers as W. E. B. Du Bois, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Eric Walrond), Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis, The Secret of Chimneys by Agatha Christie, Those Barren Leaves by Aldous Huxley, The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham, On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs by Dorothy Scarborough, The Writing of Fiction by Edith Wharton, and A Daughter of the Samurai by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto.
Notable films that entered the public domain include Harold Lloyd's The Freshman, The Merry Widow, Stella Dallas, Buster Keaton's Go West, His People, Lovers in Quarantine, Pretty Ladies, and the original silent version of The Unholy Three. Notable songs that entered include Irving Berlin's song "Always", "Sweet Georgia Brown", George and Ira Gershwin's song "Looking for a Boy", Rodgers and Hart's song "Manhattan", "Ukulele Lady", and "Yes Sir, That's My Baby". Various songs by Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Jelly Roll Morton, W. C. Handy, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Bessie Smith, Lovie Austin, Sidney Bechet, Fletcher Henderson, and Sippie Wallace also entered the public domain, as did Amy Beach's compositions The Singer and Song in the Hills.