January 1, 2012 was not only the day that you may have turned over a new leaf, but it was also the day (as it is each year) that the Center for Study of the Public Domain and Communia celebrated Public Domain Day. Based on the life-plus-seventy-years protection term, some of the creators whose unpublished works may* now be in the public domain include James Joyce, Virginia Woolf and Jelly Roll Morton.

For more info on copyright terms, see this helpful chart from Cornell U.

* Exceptions do exist. See disclaimer.