Public Domain Books Explained

A public domain book is one that nobody holds copyright in any more, so anyone may copy, share, adapt or sell it without asking permission or paying a fee. In the United States, every book published in 1930 or earlier is in the public domain as of 1 January 2026. In the European Union, the United Kingdom, Türkiye and many other countries the rule is different: copyright lasts until 70 years after the author’s death, whatever the publication date. Because the two systems measure from different starting points, the same book can be free in one country and still protected in another, which is why Project Gutenberg tells readers outside the US to check their own law before downloading.

What “public domain” means

Copyright is a temporary right. While it lasts, the author (or whoever the author sold the rights to) controls copying, translation, adaptation and public distribution of the work. When it expires, the work enters the public domain. From that point on there is no owner to ask. Publishers can print new editions, film studios can adapt the plot, teachers can photocopy the whole text, and volunteer projects can type it up and give it away.

Two things do not change when a book enters the public domain. First, a specific modern edition can still carry its own copyright for new material added to it: an introduction, footnotes, a fresh translation, illustrations. The nineteenth-century text of Pride and Prejudice is free; a 2020 annotated edition of it is not. Second, the public domain does not erase the author’s name. You still cannot claim to have written Frankenstein yourself, and in many countries authors keep a moral right of attribution that outlives the economic right.

The United States rule

US copyright duration depends mainly on when a work was published. The U.S. Copyright Office summarises the position in Circular 15A, and Cornell University Library maintains a chart that is the standard quick reference.

• Works published in the US before 1978 received a fixed term counted from publication. After several extensions, the term for works that were properly registered and renewed is 95 years from the year of publication.
• Because the term is measured in whole calendar years, a new year’s worth of books enters the public domain every 1 January. Works published in 1929 became free on 1 January 2025; works published in 1930 became free on 1 January 2026.
• Works created from 1978 onward follow a different rule: life of the author plus 70 years, or 95 years from publication for anonymous, pseudonymous and corporate works.
• Many older works entered the public domain earlier than 95 years because the copyright was never registered, carried no notice, or was not renewed when the law required renewal. Checking that history is part of what Project Gutenberg’s copyright clearance process does.

A well-known example of the 95-year clock is The Great Gatsby. Published in 1925, it entered the US public domain on 1 January 2021, and Project Gutenberg added it that month.

The life-plus-70 rule

Most of the world does not count from publication. The Berne Convention, the main international copyright treaty, sets a minimum term of the author’s life plus 50 years, and a large group of countries has extended that to life plus 70.

• The European Union harmonised its term at life plus 70 years through a 1993 directive, now consolidated as Directive 2006/116/EC.
• The United Kingdom applies the same term under section 12 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended.
• Türkiye’s Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works protects a work for 70 years after the author’s death.
• Australia, Canada (since 30 December 2022), Japan (since 30 December 2018), Brazil, Nigeria and many others also use life plus 70.
• Some countries still use the Berne minimum of life plus 50, and a few go longer; Mexico uses life plus 100.

Under life-plus-70, the trigger is the author’s death year, and the term usually runs to the end of the seventieth calendar year after it. Arthur Conan Doyle died in 1930, so his entire output, including The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, has been free in life-plus-70 countries since 1 January 2001. H. G. Wells died in 1946, so The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine entered the public domain in those countries on 1 January 2017.

Why the two systems give different answers

Because one rule looks at the publication date and the other at the author’s death date, the results diverge in both directions.

Book	Published	Author died	US status (2026)	Life+70 status (2026)
The Great Gatsby	1925	1940	Public domain since 2021	Public domain since 2011
Dubliners	1914	1941	Public domain	Public domain since 2012
Peter Pan (Peter and Wendy)	1911	1937	Public domain	Public domain since 2008, with a UK exception noted below
The War of the Worlds	1898	1946	Public domain	Public domain since 2017
Anne of Green Gables	1908	1942	Public domain	Public domain since 2013
A book published in 1931 by an author who died in 1935	1931	1935	Still protected until 2027	Public domain since 2006
A book published in 1920 by an author who died in 1970	1920	1970	Public domain	Protected until the end of 2040

The last two rows show the pattern. A long-lived author’s early books can be free in the US while still protected in Europe for decades. An author who died young can have late works that Europe treats as free while the US still counts down the 95 years.

Translations add a further layer. The original text and the translation are separate works with separate authors. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (died 1881) has been free everywhere for a long time, but the English version on this site is by Constance Garnett, who died in 1946. Under life-plus-70 her translations entered the public domain on 1 January 2017; in the US the relevant date is when each translation was published.

Peter Pan is a special case worth knowing. Section 301 of the UK’s Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 gives Great Ormond Street Hospital a perpetual right to royalties from UK stage performances, publication and broadcasts of the play, even though ordinary copyright has expired. It is an exception written for one work, and it applies only in the UK.

How Project Gutenberg decides

Project Gutenberg is based in the United States and clears every text under US law only. Its Copyright How-To page explains the rules its volunteers apply before a book is accepted, the most common being that the work was published early enough for the US fixed term to have run out. Volunteers document the edition they worked from so that the publication date can be verified.

The result is reflected in the licence text at the top of every Project Gutenberg file: the ebook is free for anyone anywhere in the United States, and readers elsewhere must check the laws of the country they are in. The permission page on gutenberg.org repeats the point and adds that the Project Gutenberg trademark has its own terms if you redistribute the files commercially under that name. The texts themselves, once they are in the public domain, carry no such restriction.

This site mirrors that position. The catalog here is drawn from Project Gutenberg, and the rights information shown on each book page is the US status. Where a book’s author died fewer than 70 years ago we say so, because that is the figure most readers outside the US need.

What to do if you are outside the United States

1. Find the author’s death year on the author page, for example James Joyce (1941) or Joseph Conrad (1924).
2. Add 70 and compare with the current year. If the author died more than 70 full calendar years ago, the original text is public domain in life-plus-70 countries.
3. Check translators and illustrators separately. Their death years are listed on the book page when the Gutenberg record names them.
4. If your country uses a different term, or the author died recently enough to make it close, look up the national law or ask a librarian. The Cornell chart covers the US only; WIPO’s Berne Convention pages and national copyright offices cover the rest.

For practical questions about getting the files onto a device once you have confirmed you may use them, see EPUB vs PDF vs TXT and How to Read Free Ebooks on Kindle. For other legal sources beyond this site, see How to Find Legal Free Ebooks.

Frequently asked questions

Does “free to download” always mean public domain?

No. Some free books are still in copyright and are offered under a licence the rights holder has chosen, such as a Creative Commons licence, or through a library lending scheme. Public domain means the copyright has expired or never existed, so no licence is needed at all. The texts on this site are public domain in the United States; the licence notice inside each Project Gutenberg file states the terms.

If a book is public domain, can I sell copies of it?

In the United States, yes, and the same is true in any country where the term has expired. What you cannot do is copy the added material of a modern edition, or use the Project Gutenberg name on a commercial product without following the terms on its permission page. Standard practice is to strip the Gutenberg header and licence if you redistribute the text commercially under your own name.

Why do US dates move every January?

US terms for pre-1978 works are measured from the year of publication and expire at the end of a calendar year, so each 1 January releases the works of one more publication year. In 2026 the newly free year was 1930. In 2027 it will be 1931, and so on, unless Congress changes the law.

Does the life-plus-70 rule apply in the United States too?

Only for works created on or after 1 January 1978, and for older unpublished works. Books published in the US before 1978 keep the fixed term counted from publication. That is why a US reader asks “when was it published?” while a reader in the EU, UK or Türkiye asks “when did the author die?”.