Public domain in India, explained

A book enters the public domain when its copyright ends. After that, anyone can read, copy, print, translate or adapt it without asking permission. For Hindi and Marathi readers this matters a great deal, because it decides which classics can legally be put online for free.

The core rule in India is simple, and most of the confusion comes from the exceptions around it. This guide covers both.

The basic rule: life plus 60 years

India's Copyright Act, 1957, protects a literary work published in the author's lifetime until 60 years from the beginning of the calendar year following the year the author died. The same term applies to dramatic, musical and artistic works.

In practice, take the year of death, add 61, and the work is public domain from January 1 of that year.

For writers who died much earlier, such as Premchand (1936), Bharatendu Harishchandra (1885), Jaishankar Prasad (1937) or Hari Narayan Apte (1919), the protection ended long ago. Saint poets such as Kabir, Tulsidas, Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram were never under modern copyright at all.

The term used to be shorter

Until a 1992 amendment, the Indian term was 50 years after death. The change to 60 years kept Rabindranath Tagore's works, which were about to become free, in copyright for another decade; they entered the public domain in India at the start of 2002. For a reader today the older rule rarely matters, because every author who died before 1966 is already past the 60-year line.

Works with other terms

Some works are counted from publication instead of from the author's death. Each runs for 60 years from the beginning of the year after the relevant event.

• A work first published after the author's death (a posthumous work) runs from the year of first publication.
• An anonymous or pseudonymous work runs from publication, unless the author's identity becomes known, in which case the normal life-based rule applies.
• Works made by or for the government run from publication.
• Films and sound recordings run from publication.

Since a 2012 amendment, photographs follow the same life-plus-60 rule as books.

These cases matter for letters, diaries and manuscripts that were published years after a writer died. A previously unpublished Premchand letter printed for the first time in 2020, for example, could have its own term running from that later date. Ask a lawyer before reusing material of this kind.

Translations are separate works

This is the most common trap. A translation involves its translator's own creative choices, so the law treats it as a new work. Its copyright runs on the translator's life, not on the original author's.

So the Hindi text of Godaan is public domain in India, but an English translation published in 1968 is not, and a Marathi rendering of the Dnyaneshwari made in the 1980s is not. The same goes for adaptations, abridgements and retellings.

The flip side is that old translations can be free. Edwin Arnold's English Bhagavad Gita (1885) and Tagore's own English Gitanjali (1912) are both long out of copyright.

Editions, notes and introductions

A modern edition of a public-domain book may add a new introduction, footnotes, a glossary, illustrations or a critical apparatus. Those additions are new work and can be protected even though the text underneath is free.

If you copy a public-domain text from a recent printed edition, take only the text. Leave out the editor's notes and introduction unless they are also old enough to be free.

India and the United States are different

Project Gutenberg, one of the best free e-book libraries, decides what to publish under United States law. For older books, US copyright mostly depends on the date of publication: a book published more than 95 years ago is in the public domain there, whatever year its author died.

That means the two systems can disagree.

• A book published in 1930 by an author who died in 1980 is public domain in the US but still protected in India until 2041.
• A book published in 1950 by an author who died in 1955 has been public domain in India since 2016 but may still be protected in the US.

Gutenberg's own license text asks readers outside the US to check their local laws. If you are in India, apply the Indian rule.

How to check a book yourself

1. Find out who wrote it, and who translated or edited the edition you have.
2. Look up the year each of them died.
3. Add 61 to each year. If every relevant date has passed, the text you are holding is very likely public domain in India.
4. If the author is unknown or the work appeared after their death, count from the year of publication instead.
5. When in doubt, treat the book as protected and read it through a library or a legitimate free source.

What public domain lets you do

Once a work is public domain, you can read and share it, print it, record an audiobook of it, translate it, or stage it, all without permission or payment. Many of the free sources in our guide to legal free reading exist because of this. The moral right to be credited as author is a separate idea, and it is good practice to name the author and the source edition whatever the legal position.

This guide is general information for readers, written by non-lawyers. It is not legal advice. If you plan to publish, sell or adapt a work, check with a copyright lawyer or the publisher first.