Class of 2016 – The Public Domain Review

"Top Row (left to right): Le Corbusier; Malcolm X; Winston Churchill Middle Row (left to right): Paul Valéry; Käthe Kollwitz; Béla Bartók; Blind Willie Johnson Bottom Row (left to right): T. S. Eliot; Lorraine Hansberry; Martin Buber; Otto Neurath

Pictured above is our top pick of those whose works will, on 1st January 2016, be entering the public domain in many countries around the world. Of the eleven featured, five will be entering the public domain in countries with a 'life plus 70 years' copyright term (e.g. most European Union members, Brazil, Israel, Nigeria, Russia, Turkey, etc.) and six in countries with a 'life plus 50 years' copyright term (e.g. Canada, New Zealand, and many countries in Asia and Africa) — those that died in the year 1945 and 1965 respectively. As always it's a sundry and diverse rabble who've assembled for our graduation photo - including two of the 20th century's most important political leaders, one of Modernism's greatest poets, two very influential but very different musicians, and one of the most revered architects of recent times...."