2030 in public domain

When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform. The following is a list of creators whose works enter the public domain in 2030 under the most common copyright regimes.

Except for Belarus (Life + 50 years)^[1] 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.^[2][3] In addition, several other countries have a limit of 70 years. The list is sorted alphabetically and includes a notable work of the 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, New Zealand, Egypt and Uruguay, a work enters the public domain 50 years after the creator's death.

Spain has a copyright term of life + 80 years for creators that died before 1988.^[4] In Colombia and Equatorial Guinea, a work enters the public domain 80 years after the creator's death.

Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books published in 1934, films released in 1934, and other works published in 1934 will enter the public domain in 2030.^[5] Sound recordings published in 1929 and unpublished works whose authors died in 1959 will also enter the public domain.

Two characters from Disney's core animated universe, Donald Duck and Clara Cluck, will enter the public domain in 2030 through their respective debut films, the Silly Symphony cartoon The Wise Little Hen and the Mickey Mouse cartoon Orphan's Benefit (the latter of which also marked the first appearance of Goofy under his familiar identity). Also entering the public domain in 2030 is the comic strip character Colonel Blimp; he is one of only a few comic characters from 1934 to do so, as none of the U.S. comic strip characters introduced in 1934 (Li'l Abner, Mandrake the Magician, and Snuffy Smith among several others) had their debut strips copyright renewed.

The most famous feature films entering the public domain in 2030 are Frank Capra's Best Picture Academy Award winner It Happened One Night starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, which is famous for its hitchhiking scene; and the Laurel and Hardy adaptation of Babes in Toyland (also known under its alternative title March of the Wooden Soldiers). Other notable films entering the public domain in 2030 include Capra's other film Broadway Bill, Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra, Jean Vigo's L'Atalante, the Alfred Hitchcock films The Man Who Knew Too Much and Waltzes from Vienna, the John Ford films The Lost Patrol, The World Moves On and Judge Priest (the latter starring Will Rogers), Billy Wilder's directorial debut Mauvaise Graine, Sidney Franklin's The Barretts of Wimpole Street starring Norma Shearer and Frederic March, W. S. Van Dyke's The Thin Man and Forsaking All Others, the musical film Stand Up and Cheer! which marked the breakthrough of child actress Shirley Temple, Little Miss Marker (also starring Temple), Victor Fleming's adaptation of Treasure Island, Mark Sandrich's The Gay Divorcee starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Lloyd Bacon's Here Comes the Navy, John M. Stahl's Imitation of Life starring Colbert, Rita Hayworth's debut film Cruz Diablo, Howard Hawks and John Conway's Viva Villa! starring Wallace Beery, Gregory La Cava's The Affairs of Cellini, Raymond Bernard's adaptation of Les Misérables, The Three Stooges' first films in their familiar iteration and for Columbia, and the first Dutch sound film William of Orange.

Notable literary works entering the public domain include Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mystery novel Murder on the Orient Express as well as her short story collections The Listerdale Mystery and Parker Pyne Investigates, the first English translation of The Death Ship, P. G. Wodehouse's novel Thank You, Jeeves and its sequel Right Ho, Jeeves, F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel Tender Is the Night, John Dickson Carr's mystery novels The Plague Court Murders and The White Priory Murders introducing Sir Henry Merrivale, James M. Cain's novel The Postman Always Rings Twice, Robert Graves' novel I, Claudius, Henry Miller's novel Tropic of Cancer, the script for the Broadway musical Anything Goes, Evelyn Waugh's novel A Handful of Dust, Rex Stout's detective novel Fer-de-Lance introducing Nero Wolfe, Ngaio Marsh's A Man Lay Dead introducing Roderick Alleyn, George Orwell's Burmese Days, the Hardy Boys novel The Mark on the Door, the Nancy Drew mystery story The Clue of the Broken Locket, the first English translation of Mikhail Sholokhov's And Quiet Flows the Don, Hergé's Tintin story Cigars of the Pharaoh as a complete album in its original French black-and-white version as well as the first serialized pages of The Blue Lotus, and Lillian Hellman's play The Children's Hour. The first of P. L. Travers' Mary Poppins novels, featuring the more refined version of its titular character, will also enter the public domain. Notable non-fiction books include Webster's New International Dictionary, second edition.

Works of art entering the public domain include Salvador Dalí's painting The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table, Joan Miró's Woman, Amrita Sher-Gil's painting The Little Girl in Blue, Diego Rivera's mural Man, Controller of the Universe, and M. C. Escher's lithograph Still Life with Spherical Mirror, and Jere Miah II's destroyed mural Nightmare of 1934'.

Popular songs entering the public domain in 2030 include "Blue Moon", "Anything Goes", "June In January", "Love In Bloom", "Cocktails for Two", and "The Very Thought Of You". The popular Christmas songs "Winter Wonderland" and "Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" will also enter the public domain; in the former's case, its entry will exclude the more child-friendly revised lyrics (which would later become the second verse) where the snowman is changed from Parson Brown to a circus clown, which did not appear until 1947.

The original theatrical version of Nina Paley's 2008 film Sita Sings the Blues will enter the public domain; while the film was already in the public domain through a CC0 licence since 2011,^[6] however the original soundtrack used 1929 recordings of Annette Hanshaw which were still copyrighted and will enter the public domain in 2030.

The Marc Sleen Foundation, responsible for the estate of Belgian comic book writer Marc Sleen (1922–2016), announced that they will dissolve as a foundation and place all of his works into the public domain on 1 January 2030 through a CC0 declaration. This includes The Adventures of Nero, Piet Fluwijn en Bolleke, De Lustige Kapoentjes, Doris Dobbel, Oktaaf Keunink, and De Ronde van Frankrijk.^[7]

The Marc Sleen Museum in Brussels, also run by the foundation, was sold to the Belgian Comic Strip Center.^[8]

• List of American films of 1934
• 1934 in literature
• 1934 in music
• 1959 in literature and 1979 in literature for deaths of writers
• Public Domain Day
• Creative Commons
• 2031 in public domain

• Media related to Undelete in 2030 at Wikimedia Commons
• "Authors by Year of Death – 1959". AuthorAndBookInfo.com.
• Popular Books of 1934 at Goodreads