Source: Amelia Andersdotter

Every year loads of European artistic works enter into the public domain, that is, the copyright protection granted to the work expires and the material becomes free for use (with or without attribution depending on jurisdiction). In 2013 te works from all over Europe passing into the public domain are works for which the author died in 1942 will enter into the public domain, except in Spain where the author must have died in 1932. Some examples of authors that entered into the public domain in 2011 in most European countries can be found here, and include Mikhail Bulgakov, Selma Lagerlöf and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

We are investigating the opportunities of organising an event at the European Parliament celebrating the new entrants into the public domain. To do this, we must however first locate works from all the member states that enter into the public domain. Preferably from many authors, musicians and film makers. And we need your help!

If you know an author, musician, film-maker or other kind of creator whose work will come into the public domain in 2013, please put their name and some works in the comments. We will maintain an updated list of all the works we accumulate in this blogpost. It appears the challenge will be to find not only the authors but also suitable works for a reading – our office can only manage so many of all the 23 official languages of the European Union so if you can provide any help please put in the comments!

If you know of an author or a work that you believe will enter into the public domain in 2013, you can also check the work for its true public domain status at OutOfCopyright.EU ! Since every national copyright law has unfortunately its own quirks, we would very much appreciated the help of volunteer lawyers to make sure that the works that we will select are indeed entering the public domain.