On 15 January, we celebrated the Public Domain Day 2026 at the Royal Library of Belgium, bringing together advocates, academics and practitioners from a variety of backgrounds. Like every year the expiry of copyright protection has led to many “new” heritage works entering the Public Domain. To celebrate the occasion, highlight the importance of the […]
As per each January 1st, COMMUNIA and its partners celebrate that new cultural works enter the Public Domain. In 2025, we celebrate the entry of many artists in the Public Domain such as Frida Kahlo, Colette, Matisse, and Virginia Woolf. To mark the occasion, we co-hosted this year’s Public Domain Day on January 9 at […]
On January 1st of every year, new heritage works enter the Public Domain. Unfortunately, oftentimes these works can still end up being inaccessible to the public, despite the fact that, legally speaking, nothing should prevent public access. In order to share experiences and best practices in opening up this material, we co-organise the annual Public […]
Today we are re-launching the www.publicdomainmanifesto.org website. 10 years after it’s conception and to the day 9 years after its first publication, the Public Domain Manifesto remains as relevant and timely as ever. The Manifesto, which was developed as part of the COMMUNIA network in 2009 and launched on the 25th of January 2010 serves […]
Traditionally, at the beginning of the new year we celebrated what is known as Public Domain Day: on the first of January of any given year the works of authors who have been dead for more than 70 years enter the public domain. As this is a decisive year for copyright reform in the European […]
We’re taking part in Copyright Week, a series of actions and discussions supporting key principles that should guide copyright policy. Every day this week, various groups are taking on different elements of the law, and addressing what’s at stake, and what we need to do to make sure that copyright promotes creativity and innovation. COMMUNIA […]
On this day, 1st of January 2013, we do not only celebrate the beginning of a new year, but we also celebrate the whole variety of works, knowledge and information that, by entering the public domain, have become freely available to the world. Given the limited term of protection granted by copyright law, a large […]
so it’s the time of the year again where lists of authors who’s works will enter into the public domain on the 1st of january are compiled left and right. Generally these efforts work like this: you start a list of authors who have died in in the year ending 70 years ago (1942) and […]
Following the trend established by the Communia Thematic Network, we celebrated Public Domain Day in Paris on the 26th of January with an event organised by the Communia Association, Wikimedia France, Creative Commons France, the CNRS Institute for Communication Sciences and the Open Knowledge Foundation. What unites all these organisations is that they share the […]
Creative Commons France organizes with Wikimedia France, the CNRS Institute for Communication Science and the Open Knowledge Foundation a public domain day in Paris, with members of organizations partnering for this event, Philippe Aigrain and Jérémie Zimmermann of la Quadrature du Net, Rémi Mathis of Wikimedia France, Lionel Maurel @calimaq and Tangui Morlier of Regards […]
