Commons:Unprotected works/Americas

Not protected
Africa‌Americas‌Asia‌Europe‌Oceania‌Others

This page gives overviews of rules for unprotected works in different countries or territories of the Americas. These are works that by their nature do not qualify for copyright protection. The rules are "transcluded" from individual page sections giving the rules for each territory.

Countries of the Americas

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COM:NOP Antigua and Barbuda

Antigua and Barbuda

No information available

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COM:NOP Argentina

Argentina

No information available

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COM:NOP Bahamas

The Bahamas

No information available

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COM:NOP Barbados

Barbados

No information available

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COM:NOP Belize

Belize

No information available

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COM:NOP Bolivia

Bolivia

No information available

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COM:NOP Brazil

Brazil

No information available

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COM:NOP Canada

Canada

No information available

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COM:NOP Chile

Chile

The common cultural heritage includes.^{[17.336/2017 Art.11]}:

a) Works whose term of protection has been extinguished;

b) Work of an unknown author, including the songs, legends, dances and expressions of the folkloric heritage;

c) Works whose owners waived the protection granted by this law;

d) Works of foreign authors, domiciled abroad that are not protected by international conventions that Chile subscribes to and ratifies;

e) Works that were expropriated by the State, unless the law specifies a beneficiary.

Works of common cultural heritage may be used by anyone, provided that paternity and the integrity of the work is respected.

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COM:NOP Colombia

Colombia

No information available

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COM:NOP Costa Rica

Costa Rica

No information available

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COM:NOP Cuba

Cuba

No information available

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COM:NOP Dominica

Dominica

No information available

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COM:NOP Dominican Republic

Dominican Republic

No information available

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COM:NOP Ecuador

Ecuador

{{PD-EC-exempt}}. The following shall not be protected: ... legal and regulatory provisions, judicial decisions, and instruments, agreements, deliberations and rulings of public bodies, and also the official translations thereof.^{[2006-13 Art.10]} Coats of arms, flags and other official symbols are not explicitly exempted from copyright protection, but they may be in the public domain if a decree or resolution originating from the proper public office, adopting such emblem or symbol, is found.

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COM:NOP El Salvador

El Salvador

No information available

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COM:NOP Grenada

Grenada

No protection shall extend under this Act to ... any official text of a legislative, administrative or legal nature, as well as any official translation thereof.^{[21/2011 Section 7(1b)]}.

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COM:NOP Guatemala

Guatemala

No information available

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COM:NOP Guyana

Guyana

No information available

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COM:NOP Haiti

Haiti

The following are not protected:

Official texts of a legislative, administrative or judiciary nature, and their official translations.^{[2005 Article 5(1)]}
News of the day.^{[2005 Article 5(2)]}
Ideas, processes, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles, discoveries or simple data, even if these are stated, described, explained. illustrated or incorporated in a work.^{[2005 Article 5(3)]}

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COM:NOP Honduras

Honduras

No information available

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COM:NOP Jamaica

Jamaica

No information available

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COM:NOP Mexico

Mexico

Under the 1996 copyright law as of 2018, the following are not protected,^{[1996-2018 Art.14]}

I. Ideas, formulas, solutions, concepts, methods, systems, principles, discoveries, processes and inventions of any kind;
II. Industrial or commercial use of the ideas contained in the works;
III. Schemes, plans or rules to perform mental acts, games or business;
IV. Letters, digits or isolated colors, unless their stylization is such that they become original drawings;
V. Names and titles or isolated phrases;

VI. Simple formats or blank forms to be filled with any type of information, as well as their instructions;
VII. Reproductions or imitations, without authorization, of shields, flags or emblems of any country, state, municipality or equivalent political division, or denominations, acronyms, symbols or emblems of international governmental, non-governmental organizations, or of any other officially recognized organization as well as the verbal designation of the same;
VIII. Legislative, regulatory, judicial administrative texts, as well as their official translations. If they are published, they must adhere to the official text and will not confer exclusive editing rights; however, the concordances, interpretations, comparative studies, annotations, commentaries and other similar works that entail, on the part of their author, the creation of an original work will be object of protection;
IX. The informative content of the news, but its form of expression, and
X. Information of common use such as proverbs, sayings, legends, facts, calendars and metric scales.

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COM:NOP Nicaragua

Nicaragua

Laws, governmental provisions, bills, minutes, agreements, deliberations and opinions of public bodies and agencies and official translations of the previous texts are not subject to protection. The judgments of the courts can be reproduced by anyone, after they have been officially certified as the authentic text.^{[312/1999 Article 16]}

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COM:NOP Panama

Panama

Under Law No. 64 of 2012 no copyright protection is given to the ideas contained in literary or artistic works, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts, systems or ideas or technical content of scientific works, nor their industrial or commercial use; official texts of administrative, legislative or judicial nature or the official translations of them, without prejudice to the obligation to respect the texts and cite the source, as well as the author's name if it appears in the source; news of the day, or events that have the character of simple press information; simple facts or data; expressions of folklore, without prejudice to the rights recognized on their adaptations, translations, arrangements or other transformations that have originality in the form of expression, nor of the guardianship that is recognized to such expressions by special laws.^{[Article 13]}

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COM:NOP Paraguay

Paraguay

"The following shall not qualify for copyright protection: 1. the ideas contained in literary or artistic works, processes, operating methods or mathematical concepts per se, or the ideological or technical content of scientific works, or their industrial or commercial exploitation; 2. official texts of legislative, administrative or judicial character, or translations thereof, without prejudice to the obligation to respect the text and mention the source; 3. news of the day; 4. mere facts or data.^{[1328/1998 Article 8]}

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COM:NOP Peru

Peru

Previously, under the 1961 law, works passed into the public domain for: (a) folk songs by unknown authors (use {{PD-Peru-anonymous}} for anonymous text and media works published before 1981); (b) works that expired on the current term; (c) works by authors without heirs; (d) works by authors who have waived their copyright; (63) works by authors who died five years ago and real utilities were expropriated by the Ministry of Public Education without opposition from their heirs and editorials (use {{PD-Peru-organization}} for orphaned works of an author who died before 1988 and who was never claimed); (64) legal texts, decrees and publications of public authorities of State as Executive, Executive and Judicial Branches (use {{PD-Peru-organization}} for text and documents published before 1996); (65) informative news content.^{[13714/1961 Art. 62-65]} (1) Ideological or technical content or that scientific work without industrial use.^{[13714/1961 Art. 1]}

Under actual 1996 law, the following are not eligible for copyright protection: (a) the ideas contained in literary or artistic works, processes, operating methods or mathematical concepts in themselves, systems or the ideological or technical content of scientific works, or the industrial or commercial exploitation thereof; (b) official texts of legislative, administrative or judicial character, or official translations thereof, without prejudice to the obligation to respect the texts and mention the source (see Works by the Peruvian Government); (c) news of the day, provided that, in the case of word-for-word reproduction, the source from which it has been taken shall be mentioned; (d) simple facts or data.^{[822/1996 Art.9]} Use {{PD-PE-exempt}}.

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COM:NOP Saint Kitts and Nevis

Other areas

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COM:NOP Anguilla

Anguilla

No protection shall extend under this Act to (a) any idea, procedure, system, method of operation, concept, principle, discovery or mere data, even if expressed, described, explained, illustrated or embodied in a work; or (b) any official text of administrative or legal nature or to any official translation thereof.^{[C120-2002 Sec.4(1)]}
In paragraph (1)(b), “official text of administrative or legal nature” does not include an Act of the Legislature of Anguilla or a regulation under such an Act.^{[C120-2002 Sec.4(2)]}

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COM:NOP Aruba

Aruba

No copyright protection is granted on:

Laws, decrees and regulations issued by the public authorities.^{[2003 Article 11]}
Court-sentences and/or administrative rulings.^{[2003 Article 11]}
Any other work published by the public authorities, except in those events of reserved rights, be it in general by laws, decrees, or regulations, or in a specific case showed by a statement on the work itself or at its publication.^{[2003 Article 11]}

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COM:NOP Bermuda

There is no copyright on laws, decisions and regulations issued by the public authorities, nor on judicial decisions and administrative decisions.^{[1913–2006 Art.11(1)]}
There is also no copyright on what has been made public by or on behalf of the public authorities, unless that right, either in general by law, decree or regulation, or in a particular case as evidenced by communication on the work itself or when it is made public, reserved.^{[1913–2006 Art.11(2)]}

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COM:NOP South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

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Commons:Unprotected works/Americas

Countries of the Americas

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