Commons:Copyright rules by territory/British Indian Ocean Territory

Shortcut: COM:BIOT

British Indian Ocean Territory is a British Overseas Territory in the Indian Ocean, about one-half of the way from Tanzania to Indonesia. It consists of several thousand tropical islands, and there is a joint military facility between the United Kingdom and the United States on the largest island (Diego Garcia).

According to The Copyright (British Indian Ocean Territory) Order 1984 for copyright purposes it would be covered by the Copyright Act 1956 with minor modifications that can be found here. Note that some works from BIOT might be from US soldiers and they likely apply tags of Category:PD-USGov license tags.

In 2024, an agreement between United Kingdom and Mauritius had been reached, that UK would cede sovereignty of the BIOT, but the joint military base will retain in Diego Garcia under a 99-year lease term. Once sovereign transfer completed, the Mauritian law will enter into force in this area, probably except Diego Garcia.

General Rules

Copyright subsisting in a work ... shall continue to subsist until the end of the period of 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author died, and shall then expire.^{[1956 Sec.2(3), 3(4)]}

• If the work had not been made public before the death of the author, copyright shall continue to subsist until the end of the period of 50 years from the end of the calendar year which it was made public.^{[1956 Sec.2(3), 3(4)]}
• Where the first publication of a literary, dramatic, or musical work. or of an artistic work other than a photograph, is anonymous or pseudonymous, any copyright subsisting in the work ... shall continue to subsist until the end of the period of 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the work was first published, and shall then expire.^{[1956 2nd Sched. Sec.2]}
• The copyright in a photograph shall continue to subsist until the end of the period of 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the photograph is first published, and shall then expire.^{[1956 Sec.3(4b)]}

Copyright tags

Further information: Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United Kingdom#TAG

Currency

Further information: Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United Kingdom#CUR

Freedom of panorama

Further information: Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United Kingdom#FOP

Stamps

Further information: Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United Kingdom#Stamps

See also

• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United Kingdom
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United States
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/British Overseas Territories
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Mauritius

Citations

Caution: The above description may be inaccurate, incomplete and/or out of date, so must be treated with caution. Before you upload a file to Wikimedia Commons you should ensure it may be used freely. See also: Commons:General disclaimer