2022 in public domain

The following is a list of creators whose works entered the public domain on 1 January 2022. When copyright expires in a creative work, it enters the public domain. Since copyright terms vary from country to country, the copyright status of a work may not be the same in all countries.

With the exception of Belarus (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 its creator's death, if it was published during their lifetime. For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first retain the publication rights for 25 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator's that entered the public domain on 1 January 2022.

Other countries with a copyright term of life + 70 years are Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Uruguay, Peru, Paraguay, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Japan, Russia, Indonesia, Israel, Armenia, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Singapore, South Korea, Dominican Republic, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, Senegal, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.

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 its creator's death.

In 2004 copyright in Australia changed from a "plus 50" law to a "plus 70" law, in line with America and the European Union. But the change was not made retroactive (unlike the 1995 change in the European Union which brought some British authors back into copyright, especially those who died from 1925 to 1944). 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).^[1]

Spain, Colombia, and Equatorial Guinea have a copyright term of life + 80 years. For Spain this is for creators who died before 1987. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the creator's that entered the public domain on 1 January 2022.

Under the Music Modernization Act, tens of thousands of sound recordings that were published before 1923 entered the public domain on 1 January 2022.^[3][4] The Library of Congress says that this will result in "Increased public and online access to previously unavailable recordings and expanded opportunities to explore the earliest days of our sound recording heritage."^[3] The sound recordings that entered the public domain under the MMA included performances by Mamie Smith, Ethel Waters, Sophie Tucker, Jelly Roll Morton, Vess L. Ossman, Bert Williams, William Murray, Harry Lauder, Enrico Caruso, Pablo Casals, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Edward "Kid" Ory, Europe's Society Orchestra, the Sousa Band, Jules Levy, Anna Chandler, Fanny Brice, Marion Harris, Nora Bayes, Al Jolson, John Steel, Joe Schenck, and Peerless Quartet.^[5] Sound recordings that were first published in 1923 or later would not enter the public domain until 100 years after their respective dates of publication.^[6]

Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, sheet music published in 1926 entered the public domain,^[7] including the compositions of "Bye Bye Blackbird", King Oliver's song "Snag It", Jelly Roll Morton's "Black Bottom Stomp", George Gershwin's song "Someone to Watch Over Me", "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", and "Ke Kali Nei Au" (later known as the "Hawaiian Wedding Song").^[5]

Additionally, all books published in 1926, films released in 1926, and other works published in 1926 entered the public domain in 2022.^[8] Unpublished works by authors who died in 1951 also entered the public domain.

Notable books entering the public domain in the United States included A. A. Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh, Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, Dorothy Parker's first collection of poems Enough Rope, Langston Hughes' The Weary Blues, T. E. Lawrence's The Seven Pillars of Wisdom (later adapted into the film Lawrence of Arabia), Felix Salten's book Bambi, a Life in the Woods, Kahlil Gibran's Sand and Foam, Agatha Christie's The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Edna Ferber's Show Boat, William Faulkner's first novel Soldiers' Pay, Willa Cather's My Mortal Enemy, D. H. Lawrence's The Plumed Serpent, H. L. Mencken's Notes on Democracy,^[5] and Franz Kafka's The Castle in its original German. The character Mary Poppins also entered the public domain through her first short story, "Mary Poppins and the Match Men".

Notable films entering the public domain included For Heaven's Sake starring Harold Lloyd, Battling Butler with Buster Keaton, Rudolph Valentino's final film The Son of the Sheik, The Temptress with Greta Garbo, Moana (a docufiction filmed in Samoa), the German expressionist classic Faust, So This Is Paris (based on the play Le Réveillon), Don Juan (the first feature film to use the Vitaphone sound system), The Cohens and Kellys (a subject of the copyright lawsuit Nichols v. Universal), and the Western film The Winning of Barbara Worth.^[5]

In 2022 Théâtre D'opéra Spatial was created and became the first AI-generated artwork to win a big art price. However, the United States Copyright Office declined to grant it a copyright status because it was "predominantly not made by humans", allowing it to automatically fall in the public domain.^[9]

Minecraft’s End Poem written by Julian Gough was released into the public domain under Creative Commons CC0 1.0.^[10]

Kevin Rose announced that all his Moonbird NFTs will enter the public domain.^[11][12][13] On April 2024 they announced they were going to reinstate the copyright on the NFTs.^[14]

• List of American films of 1926
• List of countries' copyright lengths
• Public Domain Day
• Creative Commons
• Public Domain
• Over 300 public domain authors available in Wikisource (any language), with descriptions from Wikidata
• 1950 in literature, 1960 in literature, 1971 in literature

• Media related to Public Domain Day 2022 at Wikimedia Commons
• "Authors by Year of Death - 1951". AuthorAndBookInfo.com.
• Popular Books of 1926 at Goodreads