"How long does copyright last?" has a one-line answer, the author's life plus 70 years, and that rule covers most of what you will ever encounter. But it fails in predictable ways, and those failures are where people get burned: corporate works, pre-1978 publications, sound recordings, and countries that changed their terms recently. Here is the full picture, plus the question most people actually mean: what can I use for free, today?
The quick reference for the US: works created since January 1, 1978 by an identifiable individual are protected for that author's life plus 70 years. Corporate and anonymous works get 95 years from publication or 120 from creation, whichever ends first. As of 2026, works published in 1930 or earlier are public domain, with another year freed every January 1st.
The baseline: life plus 70
For works created by an identifiable individual, the standard term across the US, EU, and UK is the author's lifetime plus 70 years after death, counted to the end of the calendar year (17 U.S.C. §§ 302, 305). Joint works, two songwriters, a co-authored book, run from the last surviving author's death, not the first. The author's lifespan controls even when ownership changes: buy a painting, commission a photo, inherit a manuscript, and the term still runs from the creator's death. Ownership can change hands indefinitely; duration never restarts (17 U.S.C. § 202).
The practical consequence: essentially everything created in your lifetime, and your parents', is still protected, whether photos, articles, songs, videos, or code. "Found it on the internet" never means "old enough to be free."
Anonymous and pseudonymous works are usually measured by the corporate 95/120 rule instead, unless the author's identity is revealed in Copyright Office records, in which case life plus 70 applies. And works with no human author get no term at all: the Copyright Office will not register purely machine-generated output, which leaves it outside copyright entirely, how copyright treats AI-generated works covers what that gap means when you publish AI material.
Works made for hire: the 95/120 rule
Works made for hire cannot be measured by anyone's lifespan, so US law gives them a fixed term: 95 years from first publication or 120 years from creation, whichever expires first (17 U.S.C. § 302(c)). "Made for hire" covers work an employee creates within the job, plus commissioned work that fits one of nine statutory categories, translations, contributions to collective works, instructional texts, and the like, and only with a signed written agreement. Most freelance photos, music, and posts commissioned without that paperwork don't qualify; they stay owned by their creators, and the clock runs on the creator's life.
One wrinkle inside the rule: a corporate work that was never published runs on the 120-year creation clock, because publication never starts it. This framework is what kept the early Disney cartoons locked so long, corporate works from the late 1920s have been entering the public domain one January at a time, with the Steamboat Willie version of Mickey Mouse crossing over in 2024.
Pre-1978 US publications: renewal, notice, and the 1930 cutoff
Older works ran under the 1909 Act: 28 years of protection, renewable for another 28. Two formalities decided survival: a published work needed a proper copyright notice, and it needed renewal in its 28th year. Miss either one and the work fell into the public domain early, permanently. Works that cleared both hurdles and were still protected in 1998 received a final 20-year extension from the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act, landing at 95 years from publication. Works published from 1964 onward renewed automatically, so the renewal question mostly disappears for them.
That history produces the modern rule of thumb: as of 2026, anything published in the US in 1930 or earlier is public domain, and each new January 1st frees another year. Works from 1931 onward are mostly still locked unless they slipped through a renewal or notice defect, and a substantial share of mid-century material did exactly that: published, never renewed, quietly free for decades. The Copyright Office's renewal records are searchable, so this is verifiable per-work rather than guesswork. And works published from 1978 through early 1989 could be saved from a missing notice by registration within five years.
Unpublished works run on a different track entirely. Manuscripts, letters, diaries, and private photographs that were never published get life plus 70 regardless of when they were created (17 U.S.C. § 303), a Civil War letter follows its author's death, not its date. If an old unpublished work was first published between 1978 and the end of 2002, it stays protected until at least the end of 2047 no matter when the author died. Old ≠ published ≠ free.
Sound recordings: two clocks running
Music carries two separate copyrights, the composition (notes and lyrics) and the sound recording (the specific fixed track), with separate owners and separate clocks. The composition usually follows life plus 70. US recordings made before February 15, 1972 were not covered by federal copyright until the Music Modernization Act of 2018 federalized them on a staggered schedule: recordings from 1922 and earlier entered the public domain in 2022; recordings from 1923 through 1946 get 100 years from publication; recordings from 1947 through 1956 get 110 years; and recordings from 1957 through 1972 stay protected until February 15, 2067.
So as of 2026, US recordings published in 1925 or earlier are free, while a 1965 track stays locked until 2067. A song from 1925 can therefore be a free composition while its 1940 recording is protected until 2040, using old music safely means checking both layers, which is exactly where using music on YouTube goes wrong most often. The clean route: record your own version of a public-domain composition. Your new recording is yours, and no royalties are owed on a free composition.
How long copyright lasts outside the US
The EU and UK match the US at life plus 70 for authored works. Canada sat at life plus 50 until December 30, 2022, when it moved to life plus 70, without reviving anything. Authors who died in 1971 or earlier had already passed into the Canadian public domain under the shorter term and stayed there; authors who died from 1972 onward get the full 70. Australia extended to life plus 70 in 2005 and likewise declined to revive the works of authors who died before 1955. Mexico runs at life plus 100, one of the longest terms anywhere. A handful of countries still sit at life plus 50, so the same death date can mean different outcomes on different maps.
Whose law applies? Generally the country where the use happens, not where the work came from. A work can be free in Canada and protected in the US, and publishing to a US audience means respecting US terms. The enforcement side of that geographic puzzle is covered in how DMCA works internationally.
One US-specific trap: the Uruguay Round Agreements Act restored US copyright on January 1, 1996 to foreign works that had fallen into the US public domain through missed formalities, provided they were still protected in their home country. The "published 1930 or earlier = free" rule is reliable for US works, not foreign ones. A European novel first published in 1920 can still be fully protected in the US if its author died within the last 70 years.
What you can actually use for free today
The safe categories, in rough order of certainty: US-published works from 1930 or earlier, a category that grows every January 1st; works published between 1931 and 1963 that were never renewed; and works of the US federal government, which carry no copyright at all (17 U.S.C. § 105). NASA imagery, federal court opinions, statutes, and agency reports are free for anyone to use. State and local government works can still carry copyright, and federal contractors sometimes keep theirs, so check the source.
Then the voluntary releases. A CC0 dedication means the owner waived everything. Creative Commons is a family, not a permission slip: attribution, share-alike, and non-commercial variants each carry conditions, and violating a condition converts a licensed use into infringement. Read the specific license.
Last, the layer trap, the mistake we see most often. A public-domain work does not make every expression of it free. The 1930 novel is free; the 1998 film adaptation of it is not. Beethoven's symphony is free; the 2019 orchestra recording is protected as a sound recording. A fresh English translation of an old foreign novel carries its own new copyright. When the material is not free, fair use is a defense rather than a blanket permission, when fair use changes the DMCA calculation covers the other side of that coin, and what infringement actually costs is worth knowing before you publish, since not knowing a work was protected is no defense.
Why duration matters even if you only create new things
Duration defines both your shield and your exposure. Your own work stays protected for your life plus 70 years. Long after you are gone, it is an asset your estate controls, can license, and can enforce, a horizon worth weighing when you decide whether copyright registration is worth it, since registration strengthens what the decades will inherit.
The exposure side is subtler. Every time you build on older material, stock imagery, archival footage, scanned documents, sampled audio, the "is it old enough?" question is exactly where accidental infringement starts. US law does not treat ignorance as an excuse: a protected work is protected whether or not you knew. And when a dispute erupts over who created what, duration rules decide which records matter, proving you own what you created turns on dated evidence, not hunches. When copies of your work surface, at any age, our takedown service handles the mechanics of removal, while term rules decide who is entitled to send the notice.
Frequently asked questions
Does copyright expire automatically, or do you have to renew it today?
Nothing expires because someone forgot a step recently. Works created on or after January 1, 1978 run their full term automatically, no renewal, no notice, no maintenance filings. The renewal trap applies only to works published between 1931 and 1963, and that deadline passed decades ago; works that missed it are already public domain, permanently.
Is a work public domain everywhere once it expires in one country?
No. Duration is territorial. A work whose author died in 1970 can be free in Canada, where the extension to life plus 70 wasn't retroactive, yet still protected in the United States, whose older works run on publication-based terms. The law that usually matters is where the use happens, including where your audience and host sit.
Who owns a copyright after the author dies?
Copyright passes like other property, by will, by contract, or under intestate succession to heirs. The term still runs from the original author's death, not from any later owner's life, so inheritance changes control but never duration. Heirs can license, sell, and enforce the work for the remainder of the seventy years.
Can you use a public domain song if the recording is still copyrighted?
Only the composition is free in that scenario. The sound recording carries its own term, which in the US can run to 2067 for recordings made between 1957 and 1972. Your options: record your own version of the composition, license the specific track, or find a recording whose term already ran out under the 100-year and 110-year schedules.
How do you check whether a specific old work is still copyrighted?
Start with the author's death year: as of 2026, an author who died in 1955 or earlier has generally passed into the public domain. For US-published works, check the publication date against the 95-year rule, and for anything published from 1931 through 1963, search the Copyright Office's renewal records before assuming protection either way.
What to do next
- Classify the work first: individual author, work made for hire, pre-1978 publication, unpublished, or sound recording. The category decides which clock applies.
- For authored works, find the author's death year: as of 2026, authors who died in 1955 or earlier are generally public domain.
- For US corporate works, add 95 years to the publication date, or 120 to creation if it never published.
- For US works published from 1931 through 1963, search the Copyright Office renewal records before concluding either way.
- For music, check the composition and the recording separately: different owners, different expirations.
- If the work is your own and copies are circulating, assemble your ownership records first, an evidence checklist is the fastest start, then act.