Is Lester B. Pearson in the public domain?
Not yet, under the general rule.
EU/UK life +70: general term runs through 2042; public domain from 1 January 2043.
US: works published in 1930 or earlier are public domain; later works depend on the work.
- Death year, Wikidata
- 1972
- General EU/UK last protected year
- 2042
- General EU/UK public-domain date
- 1 January 2043
- US publication cutoff, literary works
- 1930 or earlier
- Evaluated on
- 2026-11-06
- Wikimedia sitelinks
- 80
- Version
- SPARQL snapshot 2026-11-06
- Official source
- Wikidata
Check the work and edition
Translations, annotations, collections and later editions may contain separately protected material. Check rights in the specific text and edition you intend to use.
Joint and anonymous works, special national and transitional provisions, and first publication after death may have different terms. US status depends on the work and its publication history, not just the author's death. Sound recordings are outside this site's scope.
This calculation concerns original, individually authored literary works. Authors themselves are not copyrighted. It does not check a particular title, nationality, country of origin, or publication history. Some national terms and transitional protections can be longer; some foreign-work terms can be shorter.
General legal information, not legal advice. These estimates apply general rules only; check the work, jurisdiction and exceptions before use.
How the EU/UK year is calculated
Wikidata gives the death year as 1972. The general rule adds 70 calendar years, giving 2042 as the final year and 1 January 2043 as the following date.
Directive 2006/116/EC, Article 1, states the life plus 70 term; Article 8 starts the count on the following 1 January. CDPA 1988 section 12(2) measures 70 years from the end of the death year. For ancient authors these dates are only arithmetic illustrations of the modern rule, not historical copyright events.
United States: publication year matters
In 2026, literary works published in 1930 or earlier have passed the maximum 95-year publication term. The cutoff is 2026 - 96 = 1930, since terms end on 31 December. A work published exactly 95 calendar years before the current year can remain protected until the end of this year.
Later works depend on publication, renewal and other applicable rules. Unpublished works and some works first published from 1978 through 2002 can follow different terms. No work-by-work publication data is inferred here.
Author source
Wikidata supplies the English label, death date and 80 Wikimedia sitelinks. Data is CC0. Sitelinks measure Wikimedia coverage, not search volume.
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