When copyright ends.

Copyright is temporary. When the term expires, the work joins the commons: anyone may copy it, publish it, translate it, adapt it, sell it, or give it away. Nearly everything published before the twentieth century — and a growing part of the twentieth century itself — is now free in this sense.

Terms differ by country

• United States. Works published in or before 1930 are out of copyright as of 2026 (a 95-year term from publication for older works). Each 1 January another year’s worth of books joins them.
• United Kingdom and European Union. Copyright lasts for the author’s life plus 70 years. A translation is a separate work: the translator’s life governs it.
• Canada. Life plus 70 years for authors who died in 1972 or later; authors who died in 1971 or earlier remain free under the former life-plus-50 rule.

These differences matter. A book that is free in the United States may still be protected in Europe (or the reverse). Because Bibliomancer is read everywhere online, every title is assessed against every territory it can reach.

How it checks

Source texts come from authoritative digitisations, chiefly Project Gutenberg’s, whose volunteers clear works for the United States. That alone is not relied on. For every book, the author’s (and any translator’s) dates and the work’s first publication are recorded, the rules above are applied for each territory it sells into, and the reasoning is stored. Anything uncertain — an unidentified translator, a missing death date, a borderline year — is held automatically, until the evidence clears its threshold, before the book can be published. Publishing late is preferred to publishing wrongly.

What belongs to Bibliomancer

The texts are not Bibliomancer’s, and no claim is made on them. Its typesetting, cover designs, editorial introductions and descriptions, and this site are Bibliomancer’s own work and are protected in the ordinary way. If you spot a rights concern with any title, please tell us.