Every year, on January 1, the copyright of thousands of works is eliminated and allowed to be shared in the public domain. This year, the works of Henri Matisse, Robert Capa, and Frida Kahlo, Ernest Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms”, and William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” novels lost their copyright protection. The comic book characters Popeye and Tintin are also entering the public domain.

There are different copyright laws worldwide, but in the US, UK and many European countries, single-authored works are generally protected by copyright for the author’s life plus 70 years. For this reason, the works of writers and artists who died in 1954 are considered public domain as of this year.

Works by Matisse, Kahlo and Capa are now in the public domain.

According to the list of works that have become public domain, published this week by the UK-based Public Domain Review and Duke University’s Public Domain Center, works by Henri Matisse, Robert Capa, and Frida Kahlo are losing their copyright protection this year. In its news on the subject, Hyperallergic states that the fact that Kahlo’s works finally belong to the public is “the thing most compatible with her socialist, anti-capitalist ideologies and activism.” In this situation, it is said that the works of Matisse, a giant of 20th-century art, will become more widespread.