Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United Arab Emirates

Copyright rules: the United Arab Emirates Shortcut: COM:United Arab Emirates
Durations
Standard	Life + 50 years
Anonymous	Publish + 50 years
Collective	Publish + 50 years
Posthumous	Publish + 50 years
Applied art	Publish + 25 years
Other
Freedom of panorama	No
Terms run to year end	Yes
Common licence tags	{{PD-United Arab Emirates}} {{PD-United Arab Emirates stamp}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	ARE
Treaties
Berne convention	14 July 2004
WTO member	10 April 1996
URAA restoration date‌*	10 April 1996
WIPO treaty	14 July 2004
*‌A work is usually protected in the US if it is a type of work copyrightable in the US, published after 31 December 1928 and protected in the country of origin on the URAA date.

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in the United Arab Emirates must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both the United Arab Emirates 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 United Arab Emirates, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Background

The emirates that now make up the UAE became a British protectorate in 1819 as the Trucial States. The United Arab Emirates became independent on 2 December 1971.

The UAE has been a member of the the World Trade Organization since 10 April 1996 and the Berne Convention and WIPO Copyright Treaty since 14 July 2004.

As of 2024 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed the Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021 on Copyrights and Neighboring Rights as the main IP law enacted by the legislature of the United Arab Emirates. WIPO holds the Arabic text of this law in their WIPO Lex database. An English translation is provided by "UAE Legislation", the official platform of the legislations of the Emirati government.

The 2021 law replaced the Federal Law No. 7 of 2002 Concerning Copyrights and Neighboring Rights, which in turn replaced the Federal Law No. 40 of 1992 on the Protection of Intellectual Works and Copyright. WIPO holds copies of the earlier 1992 and 2006 laws.

Under the 2002 law,

• The Federal Law No. 40 of the year 1992 and any other provision contrary to the provisions of this law, are hereby cancelled.^{[7/2002 Article 48]}
• The applied regulations and decisions shall be valid as long as they do not contradict with the provisions of this law until the new regulations and the implementing decisions are issued, and entered into force.^{[7/2002 Article 49]}

General rules

Under the former Federal Law No. 40 of 1992,

• Copyright was valid during the author's lifetime and for 25 calendar years after his death.^{[7/2002 Article 20]}
• Copyright was valid for 25 calendar years from date of publication for the following works^{[7/2002 Article 20]}:
  • Cinema films and works of the applied arts.
  • Works made by legal persons.
  • Works published under a pen name, or without mentioning the author's name.
  • Works published for the first time after the death of their author.
• The period of copyright for photographic works was 10 calendar years from the date of publication.^{[7/2002 Article 20]}
• The period of copyright for works of joint authors was counted from the death date of the last surviving author.^{[7/2002 Article 20]}

Under the former Federal law No. 7 of 2002:

• The economic rights of the author are protected through his lifetime and for 50 years beginning from the first day of the calendar year following the death.^{[7/2002 Article 20.1]}
• The economic rights of the joint authors shall be protected through their lifetime and fifty years beginning from the first day of the calendar year following the death of the last surviving author.^{[7/2002 Article 20.2]}
• Collective works except applied arts are protected for 50 years beginning from the first day of the next calendar year of the first publication if the author is a legal person, but if the author is a natural person, the period will be calculated according to the rule stipulated in (1) and (2) of this article.^{[7/2002 Article 20.3]}
• The economic rights of works published for the first time after the death of their author expire after 50 years starting the first day of the next calendar year of its first publications.^{[7/2002 Article 20.3]}
• The economic rights of the works published anonymously or pseudonymously shall be protected for 50 years from the first day of the next calendar year of the first publication, unless the author becomes known in this period.^{[7/2002 Article 20.4]}
• The economic rights of the authors of the applied art works shall expire after 25 years of its first publication, starting the first day of the next calendar year.^{[7/2002 Article 20.5]}

The Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021 mainly retained these terms.^{[38/2021 Article 20.1–20.6]}

In order to be hosted on Commons, public domain works must be out-of-copyright in both the United States and their source country. Emirati photographs are currently in the public domain in the United States if their protection period had expired in the United Arab Emirates prior to the URAA date of restoration (10 April 1996).

Before 1993

No copyright law existed before March 1993, the year when the Federal Law No. 40 of 1992 took effect. The law did not provide any clause that gave copyrights to already-completed or published works. The succeeding Federal Law No. 7 of 2002 also did not restore copyrights to works that were already in public domain, as explicitly stated at Article 3(3) of the 2002 law. The same clause exists at Article 3(4) of the Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021. As a result, Emirati works published or completed before March 1993 are in public domain. As these were made or published before the URAA date (1996), these are also in public domain in the United States. See the related discussion here.

Not protected

Shortcut

• COM:NOP United Arab Emirates

See also: Commons:Unprotected works

Under Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021 protection does not extend to:

• Ideas, procedures, work techniques, mathematical concepts and principles and facts that are abstract yet applicable to the innovative expression of any one of them.^{[38/2021 Article 3(1)]}
• Official documents, whatever their original language or the language into which they are translated, such as texts of laws, regulations, resolutions, international conventions, judgments, awards and decisions issued by administrative committees having judicial mandate.^{[38/2021 Article 3(2)]}
• News, news reports and current events that are merely media news.^{[38/2021 Article 3(3)]}
• Works transferred to the public domain.^{[38/2021 Article 3(4)]}

Note from the copyright law: Nevertheless, Clauses (2), (3) and (4) above shall enjoy the protection should the compilation, arrangement or any effort therein be classified as innovation.

Copyright tags

Shortcut

• COM:TAG UAE

See also: Commons:Copyright tags

• {{PD-United Arab Emirates}} – photographic works 25 years after creation or published before 1992.
• {{PD-United Arab Emirates stamp}} – postage stamps 50 years after publication year or issued before 1977.

Currency

Shortcut

• COM:CUR UAE

See also: Commons:Currency

 Not OK Banknotes and coins are not exempted from copyright law in the United Arab Emirates, and so are protected in the same way as other works of applied and plastic art or drawings, with respect to reproduction and to the time period of copyright protection.

Freedom of panorama

Shortcut

• COM:FOP UAE

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

 Not OK {{NoFoP-UAE}}

Note: Please tag Emirati no-FoP deletion requests: <noinclude>[[Category:United Arab Emirates FOP cases/pending]]</noinclude>

There is no usable FoP provision in the copyright law of the UAE (Federal Law #40 of 1992, Federal Law No. 7 of 2002, and the current Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2021). UAE copyright law discusses an FoP-like provision, but it is restricted to "broadcasts".

• Without prejudice to moral rights of the Author stipulated in this Decree-Law, and in a manner not contradicting the normal utilization of the Work and causing no harm to lawful interests, the Author, after publishing his Work, may not prevent third parties to: ... Present Works of fine, applied, plastic or architectural arts in broadcasting programs if such Works are permanently exist at public places.^{[38/2021 Article 22.7]}

This restricted provision also exists under the same article of the Federal Law No. 7 of 2002. See Commons talk:Freedom of panorama/Archive 6#Update: UAE FoP situation under dispute for a discussion on FoP in the UAE.

Note: "Copyright protection expires 50 years after the death of the original author (who may be the architect, sculptor, or muralist) of a public artistic work of the United Arab Emirates. On January 1st of the following year (ie. January 1 of the 51st Year), freely-licensed images of the author's sculptures, buildings, murals, or monuments are now free and can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. The lack of Freedom of Panorama is no longer relevant here for sovereign states with no formal FOP legal rights since the author's works are now copyright free."

OK Architecture and monuments completed or erected before March 1993. There was no copyright law in the United Arab Emirates before the said date (when their very first copyright law, from 1992, took effect). The 2002 law is not retroactive, as its Article 3 clearly states that works that fell into public domain (in some translations "public property) remain not protected. See also this discussion.

Stamps

See also: Commons:Stamps

The 2002 UAE law states that such works as stamps are protected for 50 years starting from 1 January of the publication year. Yet the 1992 law gave a 25 years copyright protection (starting from the publication date). This means that all UAE postage stamps printed before 1977 are in public domain. Stamps issued after that year should wait 50 years.

One may tag Template:PD-United Arab Emirates stamp to any such image.

See also

• United Arab Emirates
• Category:United Arab Emirates FOP cases
• Category:Stamps of the United Arab Emirates

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