Novelist
Thomas Mann · 1875—1955
“The Magic Mountain” — now everyone’s.
The yearly liberation of art
Now it’s
yours.
Every New Year’s Day, a year of books, paintings and songs stops belonging to someone — and enters the public domain: everyone’s to read, perform and retell. Inventions get there even faster.
Three rules, honestly simplified — and the people they just set free.
Is it in the public domain?
Life + 70 — the rule in the UK, the EU and most of the world.
At a glance
Every liberation on one line.
Art rides above the line, medicine and inventions below. Green has already happened; amber is scheduled. Slide sideways on a small screen — and filter the whole page by kind.
James Joyce
life+70 2012
H. G. Wells
life+70 2017
Rhapsody in Blue
2020
The Great Gatsby
2021
George Orwell
life+70 2021
The Sun Also Rises
2022
Sherlock Holmes
complete at last 2023
Metropolis
the film 2023
Mickey Mouse
Steamboat Willie 2024
Popeye
2025
Frida Kahlo
2025
Albert Einstein
2026
Winnie-the-Pooh
A. A. Milne 2027
Jean Sibelius
2028
Ralph Vaughan Williams
2029
Billie Holiday
2030
Ernest Hemingway
life+70 2032
The telephone
1894
Aspirin
1917
The polio vaccine
never patented 1955
The LEGO brick
1978
SQLite
dedicated 2000
3D printing
2009
Lipitor
2011
Viagra
2017
Humira
2023
Ozempic
Canada 2026
Keytruda
2028
Ozempic
US 2032
The class of 2026
They stopped belonging to estates.
They started belonging to you.
Everyone here died in 1955. Seventy years later, on New Year’s Day, their work entered the public domain.
Freed 1 Jan 2026
Albert Einstein
1879 — 1955
Physicist
Now everyone’s: Relativity: The Special and the General Theory · The World as I See It · the 1905 papers
Freed 1 Jan 2026
Thomas Mann
1875 — 1955
Novelist
Now everyone’s: The Magic Mountain · Death in Venice · Buddenbrooks · Doctor Faustus
Freed 1 Jan 2026
Charlie Parker
1920 — 1955
Saxophonist & composer
Now everyone’s: Ornithology · Ko-Ko · Confirmation · Now's the Time
Freed 1 Jan 2026
Fernand Léger
1881 — 1955
Painter
Now everyone’s: The City · Three Women · Ballet Mécanique
Freed 1 Jan 2026
Alexander Fleming
1881 — 1955
Scientist
Now everyone’s: the 1929 penicillin paper · his lectures and notebooks
Not just art
Inventions retire at twenty.
The public domain is bigger than copyright. A patent runs about twenty years from filing, then the idea belongs to everyone — and that clock has been quietly making the world cheaper for a century.
Freed 1894
The telephone
Patent US174465
Bell’s patents ran out — and six thousand independent phone companies appeared within a decade.
Freed 1917
Aspirin
Patent US644077
Bayer’s US patent expired and the century’s most famous pill became everyone’s to make.
Freed 1978
The LEGO brick
Patent US3005282
The stud-and-tube patent ran out; compatible bricks have been legal to make ever since.
Freed 2009
3D printing
Patent US5121329
The key FDM patent expired — and desktop printers fell from five figures to a few hundred.
The daily cliff
Medicines fall off patent every day.
Nowhere does the twenty-year clock matter more. The day protection ends, the molecule is public domain: generic makers move, and prices collapse — the most valuable liberation there is.
Freed 2011
Lipitor
Atorvastatin
Once the world’s best-selling medicine. The US patent ran out in 2011 and the price fell by more than 90%.
Freed 2017
Viagra
Sildenafil
Generic since 2017 — the same molecule for a fraction of the price.
Freed 2023
Humira
Adalimumab
The biggest cliff in history: $21bn a year, until US biosimilars arrived in 2023.
Canada 2026 · US ~2032
Ozempic
Semaglutide
Same molecule, different map: the Canadian patent lapsed in 2026; the US clock runs to about 2032.
Due 2028
Eliquis
Apixaban
The blood thinner’s US generic launch is settled for 2028.
Due 2028
Keytruda
Pembrolizumab
The next great cliff: roughly $30bn a year of cancer immunotherapy meets its key US patent in 2028.
Running out next
From the US regulator’s own patent register, refreshed daily.
BRISDELLE paroxetine mesylate — 4 August 2026
BAXDELA delafloxacin meglumine — 6 August 2026
BELEODAQ belinostat — 10 August 2026
OSPHENA ospemifene — 11 August 2026
ABRAXANE paclitaxel — 13 August 2026
NUEDEXTA dextromethorphan hydrobromide; quinidine sulfate — 13 August 2026
OVIDE malathion — 14 August 2026
CABOMETYX cabozantinib s-malate — 14 August 2026
Not just expired
Some of it was given.
The commons is bigger than what clocks release. Some of the most valuable things you can use today are free because their makers CHOSE it — and each kind of gift comes with its own honest label.
Dedicated outright
SQLite
The database inside every phone and browser. Its authors placed the code in the public domain themselves — no licence, no conditions, a gift.
Zero rights reserved
CC0 museum collections
The Rijksmuseum, the Met and others photographed their masterpieces and dedicated millions of images with CC0 — yours for anything, no permission, no credit required.
Share-alike
Wikipedia
Free to reuse and rework on one condition: your version stays free too. The commons that defends itself.
One credit line
The open-source giants
The most-starred code in the world ships under loose licences — free to use and sell, keep one licence line intact. Not public domain, honestly: close, on purpose.
Now what?
It’s yours. Do something with it.
Retell it
A freed story is a beginning, not a museum piece. Turn a public-domain book, song or life into your own site, book or episode — told your way.
Build on it
A public-domain catalogue is a business waiting to open — editions, prints, recordings, generics. Set it up and put AI staff to work on it.