Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Consolidated list Others

This page gives overviews of copyright rules in unions and former countries. It is "transcluded" from individual pages giving the rules for each territory. The list may be used for comparison or maintenance.

Text transcluded from
COM:Andean Community

Andean Community

Other region, e.g. dependency, union, former country

Copyright rules: Andean Community Shortcut: COM:Andean Community
Durations
Standard	Life + 50 years (min.)
Photograph	Simple photographs are not subject to Standard protection
Audiovisual	Simple recording are not subject to Standard protection
Collective	Create/Publish + 50 years (min., except if the works are anonymous)
Applied art	Publication + 10 years
Other
Freedom of panorama	Yes
Terms run to year end	Yes
Treaties
WTO member	15 April 1994

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of the Andean Community relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in the Andean Community must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both the country of origin and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from the Andean Community, refer to the relevant Andean and domestic laws for clarification.

Background

The Andean Community (AC) is a customs union comprising the South American countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. The trade bloc was called the Andean Pact until 1996 and came into existence when the Cartagena Agreement was signed in 1969. In 1993 the members of the Andean Community adopted Decision 351, which defined common rules for copyright and neighboring rights. In 1994, the Community signed the TRIPS agreement for its inclusion to World Trade Organization. Additional rules for industrial design were established in 2000 in Decision 486.

At this time all members had adopted the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention However, various factors have delayed further convergence on common copyright rules, a prerequisite to integration of the information economies.

Nuevos criterios jurisprudenciales del Tribunal de Justicia de la Comunidad Andina, a book relevant for copyright cases and related to the changes in Decision 351 is released in 2019, available on AC official website.

General rules

Decision 351 rules have immediate and binding effect, overriding domestic laws. However, Decision 351 allows the member states to raise the standards of the rules in the areas of authors' moral rights, authors' economic rights, copyright terms, and exceptions and limitations. The rules of the common regime include:

• Each member country gives the nationals of other countries protection no less favorable than that accorded to its own nationals.^{[1993 Article 2]}
• The author shall have the inalienable, unattachable, imprescriptible and unrenounceable moral rights.^{[1993 Article 11]}
• The term of protection of the rights is not less than the life of the author and 50 years after their death.^{[1993 Article 18]}
• Where the ownership of the rights accrues to a legal entity, the term of protection is not less than 50 years from the making, disclosure or publication of the work, as the case may be.^{[1993 Article 18]}

The term of protection shall be counted from 1 January of the year following that of the death of the author or that of the making, disclosure or publication of the work, as appropriate.^{[1993 Article 20]} Unlike moral rights, economic rights are subject to can be expropriated, waived or seized and are not perpetual (according to the presentation of the Peruvian lawyer and AC magistrate representing to this country Gómez Apac).

Decision 351 also defined rules that would take effect where consistent with the domestic laws of the AC members, including provisions on works-for-hire, droit de suite, computing terms of protection, transferring and licensing, and affiliation to collective rights management societies.

Retroactivity

There is a controversy about the retroactivity of the protection of works that are in the public domain due to registration formalities before the entry into force of Decision 351 or the extension period for expired works in other countries. However, derivative works remain under the "public domain" and the status of maintain them is decision of each country in its laws. File 607-IP-2018 (also quoted in file 2-IP-88, from C-09/19, which explains the inconsistencies between the Colombian Constitution and copyright for Andean law) indicates that domestic laws that contradict existing AC decisions will not be repealed within national jurisdiction. However, in other cases, if the work is imported from other countries, the superior laws previously mentioned will be considered for community court (principle of preeminence). Exemptions exist for certain laws that interpret the decisions of the Andean Community in a prejudicial manner for the country that has not yet been normalized.

This could occur in the following cases, only for countries subscribed in that year:

• If the work expired before 1994 in its country of origin, the work into to the public domain in the Andean Community and United States except if the domestic law had a longer protection in URAA date or applies retroactivity. There are retroactivity for databases and software source code as literary works for domestic laws that do not mention as such.^{[1993 Article 60]} However, some creations like simple photographs or works of anonymous authors are not subject to protection for Decision 351, so they safely enter the public domain under Andean laws if their protection under the domestic laws has expired.
• If the work expired between 1994 and the updating of the domestic law in its country of origin, the protection extends to another countries. So, if the domestic law extinguishes its copyright term after 1994 (see Article 21), other countries will prevail its term under Andean Community protection, when its author is attributed as individual or organizational.^{[1993 Article 59]} Anonymous works do not have this possibility.
• Unregistered pre-1994 published works shall be subject to Decision 351.^{[1993 Article 60]} For works acquired before into force of the new AC rules will maintain their status, but heirs of their author who died after 1944 will be able to exploit their derivative works created after the Andean Community rules came into force. The same applies to organizational works created since 1944. This does not usually affect the United States, if domestic law keeps the work in the public domain prior to domestic extension and URAA date.
• If the work was created or published since 1994, or the date on which the country is considered as a future Andean Community member, it is subject to the rules of the Andean Community. Also, there is the possibility of extending the term from domestic laws in its country of origin.

Applied works

Decision 486 rules add protection to the applied works.

• Industrial design and utility models are considered applied arts, the term of protection is 10 years from the request in the member country.^{[2000 Article 84 and 128]}
• Integrated circuits is considered as an applied art, the term of protection is 10 years from the request in the member country or 15 years before creation.^{[2000 Article 86 and 97]}
• The following are not considered as applied art: mathematical methods, literary and artistic works, computer programs and methods of intellectual activities.^{[2000 Article 15]}
• File 317-IP-2019 determines the limits to obtain an intellectual property in applied works, a real example was the originality that would receive a bottle with some aspects that were determined to be part of an artistic work.

De minimis

• "The limitations and exceptions to copyright established in the domestic legislation will be circumscribed to cases which do not conflict with the normal exploitation of the works nor resulting unjustified prejudice to legitimate interests of the owner or owners of the rights".^{[1993 Article 21]}
• File 139-IP-2003 establishes as "subtly plagiarized work" ("obra maquillada") for intentions to transform or partially reproduce the work from other work with the purpose of exploiting it.
• File 248-IP-2014 defines that to approximate "de minimis" the copyrighted work must fit the concept of "accessory". In other words, it should not be the focus of contained work for avoid plagiarism charges.

Not protected

• The ideas contained in literary and artistic works, the ideological or technical content of scientific works, and their industrial or commercial exploitation are not subject to protection.^{[1993 Article 7]}

Freedom of panorama

Default is OK, unless a stricter standard was set by a member state. Decision 351 of the Andean Community of Nations provides for Freedom of panorama as follows:

• "Article 22.- Without prejudice to that put forth in the Chapter 5 and in the previous article, it will be legal to realize, without authorization from the author and without the payment of any remuneration, the following acts:...h) undertake the reproduction, transmission by broadcasting or cable distribution to the public of the image of an architectural work, work of fine art, photographic work or work of applied art located permanently in a place open to the public".^{[1993 Article 22(h)]}
• File 044-IP-2013 is an example of the commercial use of a property broadcast in a mass media, requiring explicit mention of its author and its publication is for "good commercial practice" (quoted as "buena fe comercial"). Otherwise, as its unlawful appropriation, this is considered as lucrative exploitation.
• A crucial passage at the last paragraph (P.39 Noveno) of the said ruling reads "Se advierte que las anteriores previsiones consagradas en la norma comunitaria, al ser tan generales en materia de procedimiento, dejan abierto un gran margen para que el ordenamiento interno de los Países Miembros regule los procedimientos y procesos con base en la norma comunitaria, de conformidad con el principio de complemento indispensable." Translated as: "It is noted that the previous provisions enshrined in the community standard, being so general in terms of procedure, leave open a great margin for the internal regulations of the Member Countries to regulate the procedures and processes based on the community standard, in accordance with the principle of indispensable complement." Interpreting from this, this means the FoP exception of the Decision 351 is binding in all member states, but the member states have the right to regulate or restrict the exception as being applied to them.

Threshold of originality

The Andean Court established in files about Threshold of originality based on the representation or subjectivity of their author's elements, as follows:

• 295-IP-2019: "The protection of a copyright does not depend on the merit of the work or its purpose, nor on the complexity of the intellectual work or the production process, it depends on whether it possesses elements that demonstrate a sensible difference from its author, that individualizes their representativeness or subjectivity".
• 10-IP-1999: "Originality in compilations or databases does not consist in the 'expression' of the works or other elements collected, but in the 'selection' or 'arrangement' of the subject matter of the compilation".
• 248-IP-2015: This file establishes the criteria for industrial design based on distinctive features such as the "convergence of lines, combination of colors and external shapes in two or three dimensions" to obtain an "aesthetic purpose". This criteria applies only to utilitarian objects. Also quoted in file 392-IP-2017.
• 358-IP-2017: "Originality implies that a work can be differentiated from other works of others. In their creation the author has imprinted elements of their own spirit. Two works may be considered original if one is not a reproduction of the other, and if each has elements that differentiate or individualize them".
• 713-IP-2018: "If the editorial design is the mere execution of the express and direct instructions, orders or directives of their contractor [...] it is difficult to affirm that the editorial design is an original work of their contractor". In this case it can only be protected if there is a creative process.
• 121-IP-2013: "[In the works] the intellectual, artistic, technical, technological or scientific merit or height shall not be taken into account. [...] The same happens if a drawing or painting is made with a lack of plastic technique; originality is not granted by the artistic quality or the adequate use of the technique, it is obtained by being a reflection of the spirit of that human being who captured the strokes on the canvas or paper. This criterion is applied in architectural works cited in this IP.

For photographic and audiovisual works:

• 143-IP-2017: "A simple photograph that does not meet the requirement of originality cannot be considered a photographic work and is consequently not protected by copyright". An example of simple photographs is a simple portrait or taken in automatic booths.
• 531-IP-2019: In the case of audiovisual creations, the originality of a work established for cinematography and its analogs with or without sound from collaborations of artists and utility personnel. In addition, artistic contributions may be exploited separately, subject to prior agreement with the production company. But videorecording, for example, does not constitute an audiovisual work and does not have full protection of economic rights.
• 371-IP-2017: This file establishes a particular case for related rights in broadcasting and production from non-individual multimedia works, "while related rights are not strictly considered artistic, literary or scientific creations, they contain sufficient creativity, technical dimension and disposition to qualify for the granting of an intellectual property right".

Examples:

• The logo for Lost Enterprises, which incorporated a stylized design of the planet Saturn was created and copyrighted in US (VAU586282), but was ruled below TOO in AC countries per 177-IP-2016 point 6.1 and Casación 1592 by Tribunal of Justice of Peru.

See also

• Andean Community
• COM:CRT/Bolivia
• COM:CRT/Colombia
• COM:CRT/Ecuador
• COM:CRT/Peru

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

Text transcluded from
COM:Czechoslovakia

Czechoslovakia

Other region, e.g. dependency, union, former country

Copyright rules: Czechoslovakia Shortcut: COM:CZECHOSLOVAKIA
Durations
Standard	Life + 50 years
Photograph	Life + 10 years
Anonymous	Publish + 50 years
Other
Terms run to year end	Yes
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	~
Treaties
Berne convention	22 February 1921
Univ. Copyright Convention	6 January 1960

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of Czechoslovakia relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in Czechoslovakia must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both the country of origin and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from Czechoslovakia, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Background

Czechoslovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe that existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until its peaceful dissolution into the Czech Republic and Slovakia on 1 January 1993.

Copyright rules were defined in the Act No. 35 of March 25, 1965 Concerning Literary, Scientific and Artistic Works (The Copyright Act), as modified and amended by the Act of March 28, 1990, No. 89 Coll. and by the Act of November 1, 1991 No. 468 Coll.

A work must be free in the successor state for it to be uploaded into Wikimedia commons. Act No. 35 was amended in the Czech Republic by the Act of December 8, 1993 No. 318 Coll. and by the Act of September 27, 1995, No. 237 Coll. In the Slovak Republic Act No. 35 was replaced by Act No.383 of 5 December 1997. Both countries have since enacted new copyright laws.

Copyright tags

• {{PD-Czechoslovakia-old}} Works that come into the public domain fifty years after the death of the author, except published photographs which come into the public domain ten years after the death of the author.
• {{PD-Czechoslovakia-anon}} works first published without a claim of authorship in Czechoslovakia come into the public domain fifty years after publication

Currency

OK. There is a legal succession of "Česká národní banka" (ČNB) for all precursor institutes ("Státní banka československá" (SBCS), "Národní banka Československá" until 1919). Therefore, {{Money-CZ}} can be applied for Czechoslovakian currency of former times and money of the first Slovakian Republic too.

Freedom of panorama

The Czechoslovak copyright law (Act No. 35 of March 25, 1965 Concerning Literary, Scientific and Artistic Works) provided an adequate freedom of panorama at Section 15(2)(f): The author’s permission for the use of a work is not required and remuneration need not be paid by a person who...f) imitates a work of art, displayed in public premises, in another field of art, photographs of a thus displayed work of art may be reproduced and distributed also without the author’s permission.

The successor states Czech Republic and Slovakia also provide freedom of panorama; see Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Czech Republic#Freedom of panorama and Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Slovakia#Freedom of panorama for information.

Stamps

Postage stamps of Czechoslovakia (published in 1918-1939 and in 1945-1992) are copyrighted 70 years after the author's death by both authors: an engraver and a graphic artist. (see overview of artists) Stamps issued before 1922 are PD with exception of portrait of TGM and Dove. Between 1934-1939 are PD stamps engraved by Bohumil Heinz with some exceptions (non PD graphic artist).

See also

• Československo / Česko-Slovensko
• Category:Stamps of Czechoslovakia
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Czech Republic
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Slovakia

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

Text transcluded from
COM:European Union

European Union

Other region, e.g. dependency, union, former country

"COM:EU" redirects here. For the discontinued extended uploaders program, see Commons:Extended uploaders.

Copyright rules: European Union Shortcut: COM:EUROPEAN UNION
Durations
Standard	Life + 70 years
Anonymous	Publish + 70 years
Other
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	~
Treaties
WIPO treaty	14 March 2010

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of the European Union relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in the European Union must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both the country of origin and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from the European Union, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Background

The European Union (EU) is a political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where members have agreed to act as one. A monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002 and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency.

The Copyright Directive (officially the Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society), is a directive of the European Union enacted to implement the WIPO Copyright Treaty and to harmonise aspects of copyright law across Europe, such as copyright exceptions. The European Union has been a Contracting Party to the WIPO Copyright Treaty with effect from 14 March 2010.

EU members are:

• Austria
• Belgium
• Bulgaria
• Croatia
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Hungary
• Ireland
• Italy
• Latvia
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malta
• Netherlands
• Poland
• Portugal
• Romania
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Sweden

In addition to the normal copyright, there are some related rights that may apply:

• The publication right lasts 25 year from first publication of a previously unpublished work the copyright term of which has ended. The publisher gets exclusive copyright-like rights to the work.
• The database right is an exclusive right to some aspects of copying any significant portion of facts from a compilation, lasting 15 years, but new versions of the collection are equally protected for 15 years.

Copyright tags

The following tags apply to works published in any country which has copyright legislation harmonized to the European Union directives.

• {{PD-old-70}} – for works in the public domain because their copyright has expired in countries and areas copyrighting works for life plus 70 years or less.
• {{PD-anon-70-EU}} – anonymous work more than 70 years old (European Union).
• {{PD-EU-no author disclosure}} – anonymous work published more than 70 years ago without a public claim of authorship and no subsequent claim of authorship in the 70 years following its first publication (European Union).
• {{PD-EEA}} – Image in the public domain because it is extracted from the European Environment Agency Website, whose material is in the public domain unless otherwise stated.
• {{Attribution-Eur-Lex}} – for works of law of the European Union, as recorded on Eur-Lex
• {{Attribution-Eurostat}} – for works from the European Union's statistical agency, Eurostat
• {{PD-European-Commission}} – for works produced by the commission without specified restrictions; works on ec.europa.eu or its portal are CC-BY-4.0.
  • {{EC-Audiovisual Center}} - for works from the European Commission's Audiovisual Center.

Individual countries of the European Union may also have country-specific tags.

Currency

Euro banknotes

OK. Under conditions. (use {{Money-EU}} for images of Euro banknotes). The rules for reproducing Euro banknotes were published in the Official Journal of the European Union, L078 of 25 March 2003. In summary, Euro banknotes are copyright of the European Central Bank, and the following rules apply to one-sided reproductions, such as pictures on websites:

• The size of the reproduction must be at least 125% or not greater than 75% of both the length and width of the banknote.
• Reproductions depicting a part of either side of the note should be smaller than one-third of the original side.
• On intangible reproductions (e.g. websites), the word SPECIMEN must be printed diagonally across the reproduction in Arial font or similar, in a non-transparent color contrasting with the dominant color of the note. The length of the word must be at least 75% of the length of the reproduction, and the height of the word must be at least 15% of the width of the reproduction. The resolution of the image must not exceed 72 dots per inch (dpi).

Euro coins

OK. Common side, under conditions. Copyright of the common side of the coin lies with the Commission of the European Union, which has determined that reproduction in a format without relief (e.g. drawing, pictures), provided that they are not detrimental to the image of the euro, is authorized. A deletion request was made in 2010 regarding them (Commons:Deletion requests/Template:Euro coin common face 2) and the conclusion was to keep them but they were deleted regardless. They were reinstated after a deletion review.

"Reproduction of all or part of the common face design of the euro coins is authorised without recourse to a specific procedure in the following cases ... for photographs, drawings, paintings, films, images, and generally reproductions in flat format (without relief) provided they are in faithful likeness and are used in ways which do not damage or detract from the image of the euro."

 Not OK. National side may not be acceptable. Copyright of the national side of the coin is determined by the individual Member States in accordance with national legislation. It is copyrighted in some of them. For more information see Copyright of the national sides of euro circulation coins (ec.Europa.eu: XLSX format file).

De minimis

The Copyright Directive (Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society allows for de minimis exception in Art. 5(3)(i):

• Member States may provide for exceptions or limitations to the rights provided for in Articles 2 and 3 in the following cases: […] incidental inclusion of a work or other subject-matter in other material.

Under the generic conditions of Article 5(5):

• The exceptions and limitations provided for in paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 shall only be applied in certain special cases which do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work or other subject-matter and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the rightsholder.

Freedom of panorama

There is a European Parliament directive on the harmonisation of the copyright law 2001/29/EC which asserts in article 5 section 3 letter h that the copyright law of the member states may restrict the copyright rights for sculptures and buildings exposed in public places:

"Member States may provide for exceptions or limitations to the rights provided for in Articles 2 and 3 in the following cases: (...) (h) use of works, such as works of architecture or sculpture, made to be located permanently in public places".

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

Text transcluded from
COM:Free City of Danzig

Free City of Danzig

Other region, e.g. dependency, union, former country

Copyright rules: the Free City of Danzig Shortcut: COM:Free City of Danzig
Durations
Standard	Life + 50 years
Anonymous	Publish + 50 years
Other
Common licence tags	{{PD-old-50}} {{Anonymous work}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	~
Treaties
Berne convention	5 December 1887

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of the Free City of Danzig relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in the Free City of Danzig must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both Poland and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from the Free City of Danzig, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Background

The Free City of Danzig was a semi-autonomous city-state that existed between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and surrounding areas primarily inhabited by Germans. The Free City was under League of Nations protection and in a binding customs union with Poland.

General rules

German law as amended to 1910 was applicable.

• Copyright expired 50 years after death of the author
• For anonymous works, copyright expired 50 years after publication according to the Berne Convention.

Copyright tags

• {{PD-old-50}} Author died 50 years ago
• {{Anonymous work}} 50 years after publication

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

Text transcluded from
COM:Manchukuo

Manchukuo

Other region, e.g. dependency, union, former country

Copyright rules: Manchukuo Shortcut: COM:MANCHUKUO
Durations
Standard	Life + 50 years
Anonymous	Publish + 50 years
Collective	Publish + 50 years
Other
Common licence tags	{{PD-Manchukuo-stamps}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	~
Treaties

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of Manchukuo relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in Manchukuo must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both China and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from Manchukuo, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Background

Manchukuo was founded in 1932 after Japanese troops occupied Northeast China and dissolved by the Soviet Union in 1945. China has always claimed Northeast China without recognizing Manchukuo.

Copyright tags

• {{PD-Manchukuo}} – for collective and anonymous works from Manchukuo, which are now in the public domain in the People's Republic of China.
• {{PD-Manchukuo-stamps}} – for stamps issued by the government of Manchukuo, which are now in the public domain in China.

Stamps

use {{PD-Manchukuo-stamps}}.

As China has always claimed Northeast China without recognizing Manchukuo, any copyright of Manchukuo stamps would have expired no later on 1 January 1996. China limits corporate copyright to 50 years since publication, and it is no longer known who designed the stamps.

See also

• Manchukuo
• Category:Stamps of Manchukuo
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/China

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

Text transcluded from
COM:Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

Other region, e.g. dependency, union, former country

Copyright rules: the Ottoman Empire Shortcut: COM:Ottoman Empire
Durations
Standard	Life + 30 years
Other
Common licence tags	{{PD-Ottoman}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	~
Treaties

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of the Ottoman Empire relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in the Ottoman Empire must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both the country of origin and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from the Ottoman Empire, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Background

The Ottoman Empire, based in Turkey, once covered large parts of the Balkans, Greece, the Middle East and North Africa. It slowly declined during the 19th century, sided with Germany during World War I and was defeated.

The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire began with the Treaty of London (1915) and continued with multiple agreements among the Allies. The partitioning of the Ottoman Empire was discussed during the Paris Peace Conference, 1919. The peace agreement, the Treaty of Sèvres, was eventually signed by the Ottoman Empire (not ratified) and the Allied administration.

States that were in part or whole within the Ottoman Empire in 1913 were Turkey, Armenia (soon part of the USSR), Iraq (British mandate), Syria and the Lebanon (French mandate), Palestine (British mandate), Jordan (British mandate), Hejaz (later part of Saudi Arabia) and Yemen.

General rules

The Ottoman Empire was dissolved in 1923, therefore all works published there are currently in the public domain in the United States. The Ottoman Empire refused to recognize international copyright, so works published there are not protected by copyright internationally. Ottoman official documents are also not protected since the divans (which comprised a large variety of legal documents) were in the public domain in the Empire. The empire's copyright code also explicitly stated that legislation could not be copyrighted. The Empire required that copyright formalities be met (copyright notice, registration, and deposit). The copyright term was 30 years after the death of the author, sometimes less.

Note that works in copyright when the Empire was dissolved may be subject to the copyright laws of successor countries. A precise date of publication must be provided, especially if the image was published circa 1920. Photographs claiming PD status on the basis of Ottoman origin must have been published in the Ottoman Empire, not merely taken there.

Copyright tags

• {{PD-Ottoman}} – for works published in the Ottoman Empire, all of which are currently in the public domain.

Stamps

use {{PD-Ottoman}}.

See also

• Category:Ottoman Empire
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Turkey

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

Text transcluded from
COM:Soviet Union

Soviet Union

Other region, e.g. dependency, union, former country

Copyright rules: the Soviet Union Shortcut: COM:Soviet Union
Durations
Standard	Life + 25 years
Other
Common licence tags	{{PD-old-auto}} {{PD-RusEmpire}} {{PD-RU-exempt}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	~
Treaties
Univ. Copyright Convention	27 May 1973

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of the former Soviet Union relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in the former Soviet Union must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both the country of origin and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from the former Soviet Union, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Background

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), or Soviet Union, was a state that spanned large parts of eastern Europe and northern Asia that existed from 30 December 1922 to 26 December 1991. It succeeded the Russian Empire, and comprised 15 nominally independent republics.

Before 1 June 1973 the general term of protection was for the lifetime of the author plus 15 years after death. The Soviet Union joined the Universal Copyright Convention on 27 May 1973, and the term of protection was retroactively extended to life plus 25 years. This remained in effect until the USSR was dissolved.

Successor states

In 1991 the Soviet Union was dissolved. 12 of the republics formed the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and are the legal successors of the USSR. These are Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. The three Baltic republics, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania took the position that they had been occupied countries rather than members of the USSR, and chose not to join the CIS.

Works published in the former USSR should be in the public domain under the laws of the successor country of origin and the United States if they are to be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons.

Note: There was a discussion whether pre-1973 works from the Soviet Union are copyright-free, originating in the period of uncertainty after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was concluded that this theory is incorrect; see discussions in Template talk:PD-Soviet.

Copyright tags

• {{PD-RusEmpire}} for works published before 1917
• {{PD-RU-exempt}} for works exempt from copyright

Currency

OK Former USSR currency is not copyrighted.

Please use {{PD-RU-exempt}} for images of Soviet (USSR) currency.

Freedom of panorama

Most of the successor nations of the Soviet Union have identical provisions on freedom of panorama and restrict it to non-commercial uses only. Refer to the pages describing the copyright rules for each member state for current rules.

Stamps

use {{PD-RU-exempt|stamps}}

Since, according to intergovernmental and international treaties, Russian Federation is a legal successor to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the tag {{PD-RU-exempt}} (please see "Russia" above) also applies to images of postage stamps, stamped covers and stamped post cards (postal stationery) of the RSFSR and USSR.

See also

• Союз Советских Социалистических Республик
• Category:Stamps of the Soviet Union
• COM:CRT/Armenia
• COM:CRT/Azerbaijan
• COM:CRT/Belarus
• COM:CRT/Estonia
• COM:CRT/Georgia
• COM:CRT/Kazakhstan
• COM:CRT/Kyrgyzstan
• COM:CRT/Latvia
• COM:CRT/Lithuania
• COM:CRT/Moldova
• COM:CRT/Russia
• COM:CRT/Tajikistan
• COM:CRT/Turkmenistan
• COM:CRT/Ukraine
• COM:CRT/Uzbekistan

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

Text transcluded from
COM:United Nations

United Nations

Other region, e.g. dependency, union, former country

Copyright rules: United Nations Shortcut: COM:UNITED NATIONS
Durations
Other
Common licence tags	{{PD-US-no notice-UN}} {{PD-UN-doc}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	~
Treaties
Univ. Copyright Convention	24 July 1971

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of the United Nations relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating from the United Nations must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in the United Nations and in the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

General rules

According to shop.un.org as of 2019,

• Permission is required to reuse content from any and all United Nations’ online platforms and databases (namely, legal and statistical databases).
• With regard to treaties and conventions, while each individual text is in the public domain, the online UN Treaty Collection is proprietary.
• Use and display of the United Nations emblem is highly restricted and essentially limited to the organization’s activities. You may not use any trademark, official mark, official emblem, flag or logo of the United Nations, or any of its other means of promotion or publicity, to represent or imply an association or affiliation with the United Nations without the United Nation’s prior written consent.
• UN photos cannot be altered, sold, redistributed or used to create derivative works.

Rules for certain types of documents

The United Nations' basic policy towards copyrighting as set forth in administrative instruction ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.1 of 26 March 1985 was not to seek copyright with the intention of thus facilitating dissemination as widely as possible of the ideas in United Nations publications. Under ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.2 of 17 September 1987, the United Nations would still not seek copyright for official records, documents and public information material, but did seek protection for all recurrent publications, studies or reports.

United States status

Under the Second Protocol of the Universal Copyright Convention (Paris text), protection under U.S. copyright law is expressly required for works published by the United Nations, by UN specialized agencies and by the Organization of American States.^{[17 USC Sec. 104 (b.5)]}

Copyright tags

• {{PD-US-no notice-UN}}: Work is excerpted from an official document of the United Nations published in the United States prior to 17 September 1987.
• {{PD-UN-doc}}: Published by the United Nations without a copyright notice, was left in the public domain in order to disseminate "as widely as possible the ideas (contained) in the United Nations Publications". It falls into one of the following categories outlined in Administrative Instruction ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.2 (paragraph 2):
  • Official records (proceedings of conferences, verbatim and summary records, periodic supplements, compilations of resolutions, etc.)
  • United Nations documents issued with a UN document symbol
  • Public information material designed primarily to inform the public about United Nations activities (not including material that is offered for sale)
• {{PD-UN-map}}: United Nations maps.
• {{PD-LN}}: Official records of the League of Nations, transferred to the United Nations when the league dissolved in 1946.

See also

• United Nations
• Category:Postage stamps of the United Nations

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

Text transcluded from
COM:Yugoslavia

Yugoslavia

Other region, e.g. dependency, union, former country

Copyright rules: Yugoslavia Shortcut: COM:YUGOSLAVIA
Durations
Standard	Life + 50 years
Photograph	Publish + 25 years
Applied art	Publish + 25 years
Other
Common licence tags	{{PD-Yugoslavia}} {{PD-YugoslaviaGov}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	~
Treaties
Berne convention	17 June 1930

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of Yugoslavia relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in Yugoslavia must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both the country of origin and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from Yugoslavia, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

History

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed in 1918 after World War I, originally name the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It was dissolved in 1941 during World War II, but the Republic of Yugoslavia was formed in 1945 with much the same boundaries. Following the Yugoslav Wars that began in 1991 the country broke into Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Yugoslavia. This last was renamed the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, which broke up into Serbia and Montenegro in 2006. In 2008 Kosovo declared its independence of Serbia. The Republic of Macedonia became the Republic of North Macedonia in 2019. Successor states are thus:

From	Successor	Copyright rules
1991	Croatia	COM:CRT/Croatia
1991	North Macedonia	COM:CRT/North Macedonia
1991	Slovenia	COM:CRT/Slovenia
1992	Bosnia and Herzegovina	COM:CRT/Bosnia and Herzegovina
2006	Montenegro	COM:CRT/Montenegro
2006	Serbia	COM:CRT/Serbia
2008	Kosovo	COM:CRT/Kosovo

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia became a member of the Berne Convention effective 17 June 1930.

The successor states have passed their own copyright laws, but work originating in the former Yugoslavia that entered the public domain in Yugoslavia would be in the public domain in the successor states.

Standard rules

The Yugoslav Copyright Act of 1978 provided for a copyright term of the life of the author plus 50 years, and for 25 years after publication for a photograph or a work of applied art. A work would have entered the public domain under this act if it met one of the following criteria:

• A work of known authorship and the author died before 1974
• An anonymous work and it was published before 1974
• A photograph or a work of applied art published before 1999

A work first published in Yugoslavia would have been in the public domain before the breakup of SFR Yugoslavia in 1991 if it met one of the following criteria:

• A work of known authorship and the author died before January 1, 1941
• An anonymous work and it was published before January 1, 1941
• A photograph or a work of applied art published before January 1, 1966

However, The work would only be in the public domain in the successor state if it met the criteria defined in the law of that state (which could have reinstated copyright on some public domain works). Also, the work would only be in the public domain in the United States if

• It is now in the public domain under United States copyright terms and in the successor state, or
• It was in the public domain in the successor state on the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) date. This date would be 1 January 1996 for countries that were, on that date, members of either the Berne Convention, the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the WIPO Copyright Treaty.

Copyright tags

• {{PD-Yugoslavia}} – Generally 50 years after the author's death, with the exception of photographs or a works of applied art, respectively 25 years since published. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, there are different regulations for the successor states:
  • {{PD-Slovenia}},
  • {{PD-Croatia}},
  • {{PD-Bosnia and Herzegovina}},
  • {{PD-North Macedonia}},
  • {{PD-Montenegro}},
  • {{PD-Serbia}}.

• {{PD-YugoslaviaGov}} – The copyright was owned by the federal authorities of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, whose assets are now held jointly by its successor states:
  • {{PD-SloveneGov}}
  • {{PD-Croatia-exempt}}
  • {{PD-BH-exempt}}
  • {{PD-North Macedonia-exempt}}
  • {{PD-MNEGov}}
  • {{PD-SerbiaGov}}

For more information about Yugoslav copyright laws, see sh:Wikipedia:Autorska prava na području bivše Jugoslavije on the Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia.

Freedom of panorama

The Yugoslav Copyright Act of 1978 provided some form of freedom of panorama provision:

• It is allowed on the territory of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia without the permission of the author...^{[693/1978 Article 48]}

• reproduction of works of art exhibited on streets and squares, unless the reproduction of a sculptural work is obtained by printing from a mold.^{[693/1978 Article 48.4]}
• reproduction of sculptural and painting works and works of architecture by means of photography in newspapers and magazines, unless the author expressly forbids it.^{[693/1978 Article 48.5]}

The second succeeding paragraph after paragraph 5 of the article governed all exceptions under the article: "In all cases from paragraph 1 of this article, the name and surname of the author of the original work and the origin of the borrowing must be clearly indicated."

The freedom of panorama exception would only be applicable to photographs made during the Yugoslav era. Current photographs, including the uploaders' own photographs, are subject to the FoP rules of the successor states.

External links

• 1978 Yugoslav Copyright Act / Zakon o autorskom pravu (2016 archived copy)

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

Footnotes

Currency
Africa‌Americas‌Asia‌Europe‌Oceania‌Others