An alphabetic list of different countries and the length of their standard copyright in years. Most countries now have copyright terms that are based on the death dates of the authors. Laws regarding anonymous works, corporate-authored works, or non-literary works vary per country. See the external link at the end of this article for more details.

• Australia life plus 50 years for works by authors who died before 1955, then life plus 70 years
• Egypt life plus 50 years
• Germany life plus 70 years
• Iraq life plus 50 years (imposed by occupying provisional authority)
• Japan life plus 50 years
• Jordan life plus 50 years
• Lebanon life plus 50 years
• Libya life plus 25 years, with 50-year minimum (as of 1968; may have changed since)
• Mexico life plus 100 years
• Morocco life plus 50 years
• New Zealand life plus 50 years
• Oman life plus 50 years
• Pakistan life plus 50 years
• Qatar life plus 50 years
• Russia life plus 50 years (life plus 70 years starting July 28, 2004, if the term didn't expire as of this date). (Source)
• Saudi Arabia life plus 50 years
• Sudan life plus 25 years
• Syria life plus 50 years
• Thailand life plus 50 years
• Tunisia life plus 50 years
• United Arab Emirates life plus 50 years
• United States of America 28 or 95 years for works copyrighted 1923-1963; 95 years for works copyrighted 1964-1977; thereafter life plus 70 years. (Copyrights prior to 1923 have expired.)
• Yemen life plus 30 years

The following is a breakdown of the dominating durations of copyright law by country. It is not intended to be used as a legal guideline since it cannot reflect the complexity of the copyright laws in effect at any one time and since copyright laws are changing continuously. It is intended only as an overview of the portions of the world which are under any particular style of copyright.

These two tables currently cover 31.1% of the world's population.

External link

• Summary of copyright terms in various countries, with links to summaries or copies of national laws