2027 in public domain

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 2027. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform.

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. For previously unpublished material, those who publish it first will have the publication rights for 25 years.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.

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 1987. 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 1931, films released in 1931, and other works published in 1931, will enter the public domain in 2027 if they were made for hire as defined in American copyright law.^[2][3][4] Sound recordings that were published in 1926 and unpublished works whose authors died in 1956 will also enter the public domain.^[2] The Disney animated short The Moose Hunt, featuring Pluto in his first appearance under his familiar name and as Mickey Mouse's dog; as well as Universal Pictures' Frankenstein and Dracula, starring Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi in their respective title roles; will be among the works to enter the public domain. In addition, the character Betty Boop's first cartoons under her familiar portrayal as a human will enter the public domain.

Other significant films entering the public domain include Rouben Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (the first horror film to win an Academy Award), Charlie Chaplin's City Lights, the Gangster film The Public Enemy, the Marx Brothers film Monkey Business, Laurel and Hardy's first feature film Pardon Us, Fritz Lang's serial killer drama M, Josef von Sternberg's Dishonored starring Marlene Dietrich, Michael Powell's directorial debut Two Crowded Hours, Otto Preminger's directorial debut The Great Love, F. W. Murnau's final film Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, the John Ford films Arrowsmith and The Brat, the Alfred Hitchcock films The Skin Game, Mary and Rich and Strange, Frank Capra films Dirigible, The Miracle Woman and Platinum Blonde, Oscar Micheaux's first sound film The Exile, Mädchen in Uniform (one of the earliest films depicting a lesbian relationship), G. W. Pabst's The Threepenny Opera, Mário Peixoto's Limite, Dave Fleischer's Bimbo's Initiation, the first Canadian sound film The Viking, the first Soviet sound film Road to Life and the first Bollywood-musical Alam Ara (now believed lost).

Artworks entering the public domain include Salvador Dalí's painting The Persistence of Memory, Georgia O'Keeffe's painting Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue, Grant Wood's painting The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, Thomas Hart Benton's painting America Today, Paul Landowski's sculpture Christ the Redeemer, Pablo Picasso's sculpture Bust of a Woman (Marie-Thérèse), Man Ray's Électricité-photo series, August Sander's photograph Secretary at West German Radio, Cologne and M.C. Escher's early print Atrani, Coast of Amalfi.

Important literary works entering the public domain include Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, Dr. Seuss's debut book The Pocket Book of Boners, Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves, Lynn Riggs' play Green Grows the Lilacs, Erich Maria Remarque's novel The Road Back, James Hanley's novel Boy, J. Slauerhoff's novel The Forbidden Kingdom, the final volume of Winston Churchill's The World Crisis, Walter B. Gibson's pulp novel The Living Shadow introducing The Shadow (not counting the character's first non-visual appearance in the radio show Detective Story Hour, which is already In the public domain since 1958), Hardy Boys novel What Happened at Midnight, Georges Simenon's novel The Strange Case of Peter the Lett (containing the first introduction of Inspector Jules Maigret) in its original French, the complete original album version of Hergé's Tintin in the Congo and the first serialized installments of Tintin in America, and Jean de Brunhoff's The Story of Babar in its original French. The first appearances of Norakuro, one of the earliest Shonen manga series, will also become public domain in the United States in 2027 in its original Japanese.

Among the better-known songs entering the public domain are "As Time Goes By", "Minnie the Moocher", "Which Side Are You On?", "All of Me", and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?". A march entering the public domain is John Philip Sousa's Kansas Wildcats.

• List of American films of 1931
• 1931 in literature
• 1931 in music
• 1956 in literature and 1976 in literature for deaths of writers
• Public Domain Day
• Creative Commons
• 2028 in public domain

• Media related to Undelete in 2027 at Wikimedia Commons
• "Authors by Year of Death – 1956". AuthorAndBookInfo.com.
• Popular Books of 1931 at Goodreads