When a work's copyright expires, it enters the public domain. The following is a list of works that enter the public domain in 2012. Since laws vary globally, the copyright status of some works are not uniform. Not all works in the public domain have been expired, some works are deliberately donated into the collection for the public good or have been abandoned by their owners. Entering the public domain in Europe In most European nations with the exception of Belarus, copyright law extends for the life of the author or artist, plus 70 years. Authors Sherwood Anderson Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga Elizabeth von Arnim Raffaello Bertieri Simon Dubnow Adriano Tilgher Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva Hugh Walpole Virginia Woolf James Joyce Tariro Musindo Film Music Frank Bridge Arkady Gaidar Amalia Guglielminetti Alter Kacyzne Gustav Gerson Kahn Adolf Koczirz Jelly Roll Morton Other notable figures Edward Bausch Henri Bergson Frederick Banting Robert Baden-Powell John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum Louis Brandeis August Cesarec Louis-Joseph Chevrolet Robert Delaunay James Frazer Tullio Levi-Civita Lazar Markovich Lissitzky George Minne Gaetano Mosca Ignacy Jan Paderewski Kole Nedelkovski Wilhelm II Petar Poparsov Giuseppe Rensi Rabindranath Tagore Santiago Rusiñol Brazil António Cabreira Entering the public domain in the United States In the United States, the copyright status of works extends for the life of the author or artists, plus 70 years. If the work is owned by a corporation, then the copyright extends 95 years. Due to the passing of the Copyright Term Extension Act (Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act) in 1998, no new works would enter the public domain in this jurisdiction until 2019. In January 2012, the Supreme Court in a 6-2 decision stated that works in the public domain can have their copyright status renewed. See also 2007 in public domain 2008 in public domain 2009 in public domain 2010 in public domain 2011 in public domain 2013 in public domain 2013 in public domain 2014 in public domain 2015 in public domain 2016 in public domain 2017 in public domain 2018 in public domain 2019 in public domain 2020 in public domain 2021 in public domain 2022 in public domain List of countries' copyright lengths Public Domain Day Creative Commons Public Domain 1941 in literature, 1951 in literature, 1961 in literature, and 1971 in literature for writers who died in those years Over 300 public domain authors available in Wikisource (any language), with