User:Rezonansowy/Copyright Center/Copyright Rules by Territory/Poland
A quick guide to what copyright templates to use, and the copyright status of Polish works, with the focus on what is public domain both in the USA and in Poland (an image may be in public domain in only one of those two jurisdictions, and if this is the case, it cannot be hosted in Commons).
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This page in a nutshell: Anonymous works published in Poland before 1946 (see Note 2 below), and works by identified Polish authors who died before 1946, are in public domain. Most official documents and symbols are in public domain. Published photographs published without a clear copyright notice up to 1994 are in public domain. |
Note 1: A Poland-related image needs two public domain templates: one to explain it's copyright status in Poland, the other one in United States. See Commons:Copyright_tags#Non-U.S._works
Note 2: The date 1946 should be read as 1st January 1946, and is relevant to the year this sentence has been last updated (2016). In 2017, it will be 1947, and so on.
Note 3: Poland has freedom of panorama subject to minor exceptions ({{FoP-Poland}}).
What copyright templates to use:
- works by Polish artists with pma (post mortem auctoris - after the author's death) before 1946 published in Poland before 1923: {{PD-old-70}} or {{PD-Art|1=PD-old-70}} (for photos of 2d art) and {{PD-1923}}, or {{PD-old-auto-1923|1=}} with the 1= parameter being the date of death of an artist
- works by Polish artists with pma before 1946 published in Poland before 1946: {{PD-old-70}} or {{PD-Art|1=PD-old-70}} (for photos of 2d art) and {{PD-1996}} or {{PD-Art|PD-old-auto-1996|country=Poland|date=1996|reason=|deathyear=}}
- works by presumably Polish anonymous artists published in Poland before 1946: {{PD-anon-70-EU}} and {{PD-1996}}, plus {{PD-Art|1=PD-old-auto-1996|country=Poland|date=}} (for photos of 2d art), with date parameter being (I think?) the data the work was published
- works whose economic rights have are owned not by the author but by another party (i.e. works for hire): treat like published by a person, see paragraph on works for hire below for rationale. Yes, the wording on some templates refers to the author and maybe it should say author or copyright holder, but wording doesn't change the fact of being in PD or not.
- photographs published before 1994 by Polish photographers (or published for the first time in Poland or simultaneously in Poland and abroad), without a clear copyright notice: {{PD-Polish}}
- official documents, materials, signs and symbols (published as acts, laws, their parts and similar) : {{PD-Polishsymbol}} (note: unlike in USA, not every work of the official administrative institutions and other governmental agencies is PD).
What is not PD in Wikimedia Commons: any works by Polish artists who died after 1946, as they are not covered by {{PD-old-70}}/{{PD-art}}, subject to exceptions due to specifics of Polish Copyright Law in particular {{PD-Polish}} (for some pre-1994 photographs) and {{PD-Polishsymbol}} (for government symbols). 1946 and later works were restored in the U.S. by the URAA, and (if published 1923 or later) will have a term of 95 years from publication regardless of when the author died. (It's only works published 1978 or later which have a U.S. term based on the author's life dates, which is rarely relevant). So, 1946-and-later anonymous works are protected for 70 years in Poland and 95 years in the United States.
How was the above arrived at: look at Commons:Hirtle_chart, section "Works First Published Outside the U.S. by Foreign Nationals or U.S. Citizens Living Abroad. On Commons these cases also need to be free according to copyright terms in the country of publication." (The latter is covered by {{Anonymous-EU}} for up to 1941). The next step is "1923 through 1977: Published without compliance with US formalities, and in the public domain in its source country as of URAA date; 1 January 1996 for most countries." This sends us to w:Wikipedia:Non-U.S._copyrights#endnote_tab_poland, which states "Poland extended its copyright term to 50 years p.m.a. on May 23, 1994, and then to 70 years on January 1, 2003. This means that on the URAA date of January 1, 1996, the shorter term of 50 years was still valid", which is how you get the 1946 date. The following sentence "However, some of these works then became re-copyrighted in 2003 within Poland (and later the European Union" explains why the works from 1943-1946 were now copyrighted in Poland/EU (hence, {{Anonymous-EU}} comes into play again).
For works for hire, where it is not the author but another party that owns copyright, the duration is 70 years from works publication or creation, see Polish Copyright Law Art. 36 exception 3 ("if, under this Act, a person other than the author owns the author's economic rights -from the date of the dissemination of the work; and if the work has not been disseminated -from the date of the establishment thereof"). Also, from w:Work_for_hire#Copyright_duration: "In the European Union... the duration of protection is in general the same as the copyright term for a personal copyright: i.e., for a literary or artistic work, 70 years from the death of the human author, or in the case of works of joint authorship, 70 years from the death of the last surviving author. If the natural author or authors are not identified, nor become known subsequently, then the copyright term is the same as that for an anonymous or pseudonymous work, i.e. 70 years from publication for a literary or artistic work; or, if the work has not been published in that time, 70 years from creation. (Article 1, Directive harmonizing the term of copyright protection, Directive 93/98/EC.</ref> (Copyright durations for works created before 1993 may be subject to transitional arrangements)."
In summary: majority of works by Polish authors who died before 1946 are in public domain in EU/US, thus we can say that "almost all works by Polish authors who died before 1946, and all anonymous work published in Poland before 1946, is in public domain". Following exceptions apply:
- ) it's possible for works for Polish authors who died before 1946 to still be copyrighted, if the works were published posthumously 1946 or later (see Polish Copyright Law, Art 36., exception 2: "if the author of a work is unknown -from the date of the first dissemination of the work").
- ) Also, for some individuals who died during World War II, but whose exact date of death is not known, Polish law set the date 9 May 1946 as their legal date of death; thus for example works of Janusz Korczak who died in August 1942 (exact date of death unknown) were copyrighted till 2017 (1 January of the first year after legal date of death, +70 years), through that was particular case was recently overruled; in either way this becomes moot by 2017.
- )It is *possible* that Polish works did conform to all U.S. formalities (copyright notice and copyright renewal 28 years after publication), and thus didn't need URAA restoration since their copyright was never lost, but that is very rare outside of books.
Finally, note that a lot of images rely on Template:PD-Polish. This can occasionally be overturned when a copyright notice can be found. See case study at Commons:Deletion requests/File:Okragly Stol 1989.jpg (2nd discussion).
In case the rights are inherited: {{PD-heirs}}
See also: {{PolishSenateCopyright}}, {{PolishPresidentCopyright}}, Category:Templates related to Poland (should contain all copyright templates related to Poland), Commons:Copyright_rules_by_territory_-_full#Poland, Commons:Freedom_of_panorama#Poland ({{FoP-Poland}})
Outstanding issues: please see the talk page.
Poland
[edit]- See also: User:Piotrus/PolishCopyright
According to the Art.3 of copyright law of March 29, 1926 (valid until 1952) and Art. 2 of copyright law of July 10, 1952 of the People's Republic of Poland, all photographs by Polish photographers (or published for the first time in Poland or simultaneously in Poland and abroad) printed without a clear copyright notice before the law was changed on May 23, 1994 are public domain. Status of those photographs did not change after Polish Copyright Law of February 4, 1994 was enacted. (See: Template:PD-Polish)
According to the Polish Copyright Law of February 4, 1994 (Article 4, case 2) "governmental symbols, documents, materials and signs are not subject to copyrights". However in some instances the use of this image in Poland might be regulated by other laws. It is being debated if postage stamps and banknotes fall into this category. (See: Template:PD-Polishsymbol)
According to the Art.21 of copyright law of March 29, 1926 (valid until 1952) photographs lose copyright protection ten years after picture was taken. Series of scientific or artistic pictures lose copyright protection after 50 years. According to Art. 27 of copyright law of July 10, 1952 (valid until May 23, 1994) photographs and series of photographs lose copyright protection ten years after publication date. However, retroactive Polish Copyright Law of February 4, 1994 Art. 124, put all those images back under copyright protection, for 50 years since the death of the author. An amendment passed in late 2002, effective January 1, 2003, retroactively extended terms to 70 years after the death of an author, and a further amendment was made in April 2004.
Anonymous and pseudonymous works lose copyright protection seventy years "from the date of the first dissemination of the work, unless the pseudonym adopted by the author leaves no doubt as to his identity or the author has disclosed his identity" (Art. 36).
The copyright act from February 4, 1994 in article 33 point 1 allows to propagate works that are permanently exhibited on the publicly accessible roads, streets, squares or gardens provided that the propagation is not for the same use. The name of the creator and source should be provided if it is possible by article 34. This use is royalty free, provided that it does not harm the legitimate interests of the creator by article 34. See also: Commons:Freedom_of_panorama#Poland
Additionally selected government websites publish content on Creative Commons license unless stated otherwise. As of 10 August 2015 ministerial websites had a following copyright status, free licenses are marked green:
| List of ministries |
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* Ministry of Digital Affairs – CC BY 3.0 PL
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- Selected and short review of Polish copyright case-law (blog posting, in English)
- The 1994 law in English