Every year, on Public Domain Day, countless creative works become free for everyone to share, reuse, and build upon. It’s a quiet but powerful moment — when culture opens up and forgotten stories can find new life online.
To celebrate and prepare for that moment, Wiki Loves Public Domain is now in full swing!
From October 1 to December 31 2025, volunteers from Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and around the world are working together to make cultural heritage freely accessible through Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikidata.
What is Wiki Loves Public Domain?
The campaign is organized by Wikimedia Belgium, Wikimedia France, and Wikimedia Netherlands, in collaboration with Open Nederland and meemoo.
In 2026, copyright will expire on the works of creators who passed away in 1955. That means writers, artists, and photographers whose creations have been protected for seventy years will soon belong to everyone.
By improving or creating Wikipedia articles, uploading images, and adding data about these creators now, we make sure their names, lives, and legacies are ready to shine as soon as they officially enter the public domain.
How you can join
Whether you love writing, researching, or sharing images — there’s a way to contribute:
- 📝 Write or expand biographies of creators who died in 1955.
- 📷 Upload free media to Wikimedia Commons (for creators who died in 1954).
- 🔎 Add structured data on Wikidata to make their work easier to find worldwide.
Why it matters
When we open up the public domain, we open up access to knowledge, creativity, and memory.
Your contributions help ensure that cultural heritage isn’t lost in time, but instead becomes a living part of our shared digital commons — accessible to everyone, everywhere.
🌍 Join us today!
Register and find all details on the official event page.
Together, we can make sure that when 2026 arrives, the creators entering the public domain are not forgotten — but celebrated.
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