2025 in public domain

When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of works is not uniform. The following lists list creators whose works entered the public domain in 2025 under the most common copyright regimes.
Spain has a copyright term of life + 80 years for creators that died before 1987. In Colombia and Equatorial Guinea, a work enters the public domain 80 years after the creator's death.
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 the creator's death, if it was published during the creator's lifetime.
In Bangladesh, Haiti, 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 and New Zealand, a work enters the public domain 50 years after the creator's death.
Russia has a copyright term of life + 70 years in general, with two special provisions:
1954 marks the first large wave of posthumous rehabilitations.
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. But the change was not made retroactive (unlike the 1995 change in the European Union which brought some (British and possibly other) 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).
Similarly, Canada amended its Copyright Act in 2022 from a "plus 50" law to a "plus 70" law, coming into force on December 30, 2022, but does not revive expired copyright. No more new Canadian authors will come out of copyright until 1 January 2043 (those who died in 1972). Crown copyright was not changed, thus any government works published in 1974 entered the public domain in 2025.
Under the Copyright Term Extension Act, books and other works published in 1929 and films released in 1929 entered the public domain in 2025. Sound recordings that were published in 1924 also entered the public domain. The character Captain Easy, Popeye the Sailor Man, Disney's Horace Horsecollar, and Hergé's Tintin entered the public domain through their respective debut appearances in 2025. The same happened for the first Tarzan strips illustrated by Hal Foster and for the character Buck Rogers, whose first comic strips also appeared in U.S. newspapers in 1929.
Notable musical works entering the public domain include George Gershwin's composition An American in Paris and the first recordings of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue.
Among the popular songs that entered the public domain in 2025 are the following:
Unpublished works whose authors died in 1954 entered the public domain in 2025.
Among the films that entered public domain in 2025 are the following:
Examples of important literary works entering the public domain include Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms, William Seabrook's novel The Magic Island (the first book to introduce the concept of a zombie). Ellery Queen's detective novel The Roman Hat Mystery, Margery Allingham's detective novel The Crime at Black Dudley, the first English translation of Erich Maria Remarque's novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Alfred Döblin's novel Berlin Alexanderplatz in its original German, Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's novel Pather Panchali in its original Bengali, Lynd Ward's wordless novel Gods' Man, William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury, Dashiell Hammett's novel Red Harvest, Edgar Rice Burroughs's novel Tarzan and the Lost Empire, Ruth Plumly Thompson's novel Jack Pumpkinhead of Oz, Bertrand Russell's book Marriage and Morals, Patrick Hamilton's play Rope, A. A. Milne's play Toad of Toad Hall, Virginia Woolf's essay A Room of One's Own, Ludwig Wittgenstein's essay Some Remarks on Logical Form and the first part of the 14th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica (full in public domain by 2029).
Important artworks entering the public domain include Salvador Dalí's paintings The Great Masturbator and The Accommodations of Desire, Wassily Kandinsky's painting Upward, Edward Hopper's painting Chop Suey, Kawamura Kiyoo's painting Founding of the Nation, Julio Romero de Torres' painting La Fuensanta, M. C. Escher's print Strada di Scanno, the first design of the Barcelona chair and August Sander's photograph Berlin Coal Carrier and other photographs from his 1929 photobook Face of our Time. The public domain status of René Magritte's painting The Treachery of Images is contentious.