Wikipedia:Public domain
This page documents an English Wikipedia consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
For all practical purposes on Wikipedia, the public domain comprises copyright-free works: anyone can use them in any way and for any purpose. Proper attribution to the author or source of a work, even if it is in the public domain, is still required in order to comply with relevant policies.[1]
The public domain is generally defined (e.g. by the US Copyright Office) as the sum of works that are not copyrighted, i.e.
- that were not eligible for copyright in the first place, or
- whose copyright has expired, or
- that were released into the public domain by the copyright holder.
However, there is no such thing as the public domain on the Internet. International treaties, like the
The Wikimedia Foundation, the legal body responsible for Wikipedia, is based in the US state of California. Although legislation is sometimes unclear about which laws are to apply on the Internet, the primary law relevant for Wikipedia is that of the United States. For re-users of Wikipedia content, it is the laws of their respective countries.
In the US, any work published before January 1, 1929, anywhere in the world[2] is in the public domain. Other countries are not bound by that 1929 date, though.[3] Complications arise when special cases are considered, such as trying to determine whether a work published later might be in the public domain in the US, or when dealing with unpublished works. When a work has not been published in the US, but in some other country, that other country's copyright laws also must be taken into account. Re-users of Wikipedia content also might find the explanations here useful.
Important documents
- The WIPOweb site.
- The US Copyright Law is Title 17 of the United States Code (17 USC), chapters 1 through 8 and 10 through 12. Chapters 9 and 13 contain design protection laws on semiconductor chips and ship hulls that are of no interest or relevance for Wikipedia.
- The EU Directive on harmonising the term of copyright protection is a binding directive for all member countries of the European Union, harmonizing the term of copyright. It became effective on July 1, 1995. Individual countries have amended their laws to comply with this directive. The EU legislation web site has the full text (1993), plus a 2001 amendment modifying §3(2). See Retroactive changes in copyright legislationbelow for some discussion.
The US Copyright Law explicitly makes clear that the Berne Convention is just a treaty, not some "super-law" that would take precedence over US law: 17 USC 104(c) states that
- "No right or interest in a work eligible for protection under this title may be claimed by virtue of, or in reliance upon, the provisions of the Berne Convention, or the adherence of the United States thereto."
When discussing copyright issues informally (and all such discussions on Wikipedia are informal), one may nevertheless argue in terms of the Berne Convention: writing "according to §y of the Berne Convention..." is then just a short-hand for writing "according to §x of country's copyright law, which implements §y of the Berne Convention, ...". However, one should bear in mind that some paragraphs of the Berne Convention are optional, and that any country may go beyond the minimum standards specified by the Berne Convention for the most part.
Other documents
There are some other documents related to copyright issues that one occasionally comes across, but they are generally less important for Wikipedia's purposes.
- The Universal Copyright Convention (UCC, 1952 Geneva text Archived 2012-11-25 at the Wayback Machine, 1971 Paris text) was developed as an alternative international copyright treaty—it prescribed less stringent protections than the main Berne Convention. Notably, the UCC explicitly states that, if a signatory of the UCC is also a signatory of the Berne Convention, the latter should prevail. Given that most countries have since joined the Berne Convention, the UCC is largely irrelevant today. However, the adherence dates of some states to the UCC may still be of interest.
- The Rome Convention (International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations) from 1961 is a treaty augmenting the Berne Convention by copyright on performances and recordings thereof.
- The Geneva Phonograms Convention (Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms) is an additional international treaty extending copyright to sound recordings.
- The WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) from 1996, effective 2002, is an extension of the Berne Convention, bringing computer programs and databases under the auspices of copyright. In the US, it is implemented by the DMCA.
- The WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) from 1996 entered in force in 2002. It is an update of the Rome Convention. In the US, it was implemented as part of the DMCA.
Works ineligible for copyright protection
- In short: US Federal Government works, or no creative content
- See also: Copyright on emblems.
US government works
US federal government works—defined as any "work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties"
In practice, this means that much material on *.gov and *.mil, as well as material on some *.us web sites (such as the sites of the
- US governmental web sites may use copyrighted works, too; either by having licensed them or under a "fair use" provision. In general, such copyrighted works on web sites of the US federal government and its agencies are indicated by appropriate bylines. An example are "visitor image galleries" on US National Park Service websites: unless these have some indication that the photographs are placed in the public domain by publishing them on that NPS web site, these images are copyrighted by their photographers, who are visitors of national parks, not employees of the NPS. According to the CENDI FAQ on "Frequently Asked Questions About Copyright", "Copyrighted works that are not owned by the Government should be included on government web sites only with permission of the copyright owner and should include an appropriate copyright notice."[10]
- Some US state and local governments also have web sites in the *.gov domain. State and local governments usually do retain a copyright on their works. 17 USC §105 only places federal documents in the public domain.[11] However, laws and/or court decisions in some states may place their work in the public domain. See, for example, {{PD-CAGov}} and {{PD-FLGov}}.
- Works produced under a commission from the US government by a contractor are most likely copyrighted. This typically includes any documents from research labs. The US Department of Energy, but that does not mean the works it produces are "works of the federal government". ORNL works are copyrighted, and the US government is granted a non-exclusive license to use, publish, and allow republication of such works. The precise terms vary from one lab to the next, but in general, commercial re-use of their works is prohibited.[12] This also applies to works authored by independent contractors or freelance writers or artists, even when their works are commissioned by some US government agency.[13][14]
- Even the US federal government may hold copyrights, if the original copyright holder assigns or transfers the copyright to the US government. A notable example of this is the obverse of the Sacagawea dollar coin, which its designer Glenna Goodacre claimed copyright of before she transferred the design and copyright to the United States Mint.[15] When a US government agency holds such a transferred copyright, it may declare the work to be in the public domain (or not).[13]
Under US law, laws themselves and legal rulings also form a special class. The US Supreme Court has held that judicial opinions of both federal and state judges—being a form of case law—cannot be copyrighted.
The
Most other countries’ governments do hold copyrights, and their works are copyright protected. At the same time, many countries declare their edicts, as well as those of other countries, such as laws and court decisions, to be exempt from copyright. Such exemptions are typically narrowly defined and cannot be construed to mean “any publication by a government office”.
Works of the United Nations or its agencies or of the OAS are subject to copyright.[18] Some UN documents are in the public domain; see Works of the United Nations.
Non-creative works
- In short: Bare facts are in the public domain. Works must show sufficient human creativity to be eligible for copyright at all.
A second category of works that in general cannot be copyright protected are those that have no (or no significant) creative content: they do not pass the
While the facts themselves are exempt, other creative elements in a compilation of facts may warrant copyright protection. For example, Eckes v. Card Prices Update established that the specific selection of which facts to include in a list, when done as the result of a creative act, merits protection even when the individual elements do not. (See also 17 USC 103(b).) The
Similarly, though scientific data are usually exempt from copyright, the specific figures and styles of presentation used to present that data will in most cases merit copyright protection. Also, in some cases facts that are exempt from copyright may still be protected as a result of patent law.
Another class of uncreative works which are unable to claim copyright protection in the US are those resulting from mechanical reproduction. Following Bridgeman Art Library v. Corel Corp., a simple reproductive photograph of a two-dimensional artwork does not give rise to a new copyright on the photograph. Many other countries (but not all!) recognize a similar ineligibility for copyright for reproductive photographs of two-dimensional public domain works.
Common to all these cases is that only works created by a human are eligible for copyright.[19]
Works created by non-human animals (such as a photograph produced by a chimpanzee)[19] or machines[19] are not copyrightable, although in the case of drawings produced by a computer program, the program itself of course may be copyrighted. In certain cases, even graphics produced by computer programs may be copyrightable; see e.g. Stern Electronics, Inc. v. Kaufman.
Descriptions (including diagrams) in
Photographic reproductions, as a form of derivative work, may inherit the copyright of the original work. If that artwork is in the public domain, then so is the photograph.[21] If, however, the depicted work is copyright protected, then, although there is no independent copyright on the photo itself, it cannot be considered to be in the public domain as the original rights holder still has the authority to control how reproductions of his work, including photographs, are made and distributed. The same applies to digitized images.
It should also be noted that the exemption of reproduction photographs extends only to two-dimensional artwork in the US. A photograph of a three dimensional statue may acquire copyright protection even if the statue itself belongs to the public domain. Such rights derive from the creativity involved in the positioning of camera, lighting, and other variables.
In the US, the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices of the
Fonts and typefaces
- In short: Scalable fonts as such are copyrighted as computer programs; typefaces as such may be protected by design patents, and, in a few countries, by copyright; actual use of the typeface is not restricted, even if the font used was based illegally on a protected typeface.
Under US law,
International aspects
- In short: The threshold of originality varies between countries. Might even be zero.
Like the duration of copyright, eligibility to copyright in the first place is governed by national laws. The Berne Convention, §5(2) Archived 2012-09-01 at WebCite explicitly states that
- The enjoyment and the exercise of these rights [i.e., copyrights] shall not be subject to any formality; such enjoyment and such exercise shall be independent of the existence of [copyright] protection in the country of origin of the work.
In other words: a work that is not copyrightable in one country (even if that country is its country of origin) can still be copyrighted in other countries, if the work is copyrightable there. An example of this is File:Christoph Meili 1997-nonfree.jpg: this image is not copyrightable in its country of origin (Switzerland) by a decision of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.[27] However, in all likelihood it fulfills the criteria in other countries: it would pass the threshold of originality in the US; and it would probably also be eligible for copyright in the EU.
Mere ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such are not copyrightable as per article 2 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty.[28]
Publication
- In short: A work is published when tangible copies of it are made available to the public at large.
In the following, we will frequently refer to the "publication" of a work. A work is published when copies of the work are made accessible in some non-ephemeral form to the public at large with the consent of its author or copyright holder. Ephemeral forms of making the work accessible do not constitute publication. To quote the Berne Convention, §3.3 Archived 2012-09-01 at WebCite:
- The performance of a dramatic, dramatico-musical, cinematographic or musical work, the public recitation of a literary work, the communication by wire or the broadcasting of literary or artistic works, the exhibition of a work of art and the construction of a work of architecture shall not constitute publication.
The US Copyright law defines "publication" in 17 USC 101 in basically the same way using different words:
- "Publication" is the distribution of copies or phonorecords of a work to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership, or by rental, lease, or lending. The offering to distribute copies or phonorecords to a group of persons for purposes of further distribution, public performance, or public display, constitutes publication. A public performance or display of a work does not of itself constitute publication.
"Public display" includes broadcasts and other transmissions. The US Copyright Office states in its Circular 40:
- A work of art that exists in only one copy, such as a painting or statue, is not regarded as published when the single existing copy is sold or offered for sale in the traditional way, for example, through an art dealer, gallery, or auction house. A statue erected in a public place is not necessarily published.
- When the work is reproduced in multiple copies, such as reproductions of a painting or castings of a statue, the work is published when the reproductions are publicly distributed or offered to a group for further distribution or public display.
Thus, a work is unpublished unless copies (which may be print publications, photos, postcards, lithographs, but also non-print publications such as replicas of a statuette) of it are published. It is of course implied that such a distribution of copies occurred legally, in particular with the consent of the copyright holder. An illegal distribution of copies (for instance one that itself would be a copyright violation) does not constitute a publication of a work. The right to publish a work is an exclusive right of the copyright owner (17 USC 106), and violating this right (e.g. by disseminating copies of the work without the copyright owner's consent) is a copyright infringement (17 USC 501(a)), and the copyright owner can demand (by suing in court) that copies distributed against his or her will be confiscated and destroyed (17 USC 502, 17 USC 503).
Notwithstanding the quoted paragraph from the Berne Convention, broadcast and public performance of literary or dramatic works may constitute publication in other countries, e.g. Australia (see Infosheet G023v16: Duration of Copyright (February 2012, pg. 11)).
For works that were made available to the public in the form of sound recordings (i.e. phonograph records), it should be noted that the publication of a sound recording before January 1, 1978, does not constitute publication of any underlying musical or dramatic or literary work.[29] Movies and TV shows are subject to special issues with regard to publication status; see the "Movies" and "TV shows" sections for more detail.
We will get back to this issue in the sections "Published works" and "Unpublished works" below.
When does copyright expire?
- In short: It depends, but always at the end of the year in which it expires.
The Berne Convention was designed to ensure that works protected in the country of origin were also protected in all other signatory countries without the rights holder having to register claims in each and every one of these countries. Thus the laws of the originating country of a work determine whether something is copyright protected at all, and if so, the Berne Convention ensures that it is automatically copyright protected in all other signatory countries, too, under their respective laws (§5(1) of the Berne Convention).
(The originating country or country of origin is that country where the work was initially published, or in the case of unpublished works, defined by the author's nationality or "habitual domicile". See §3 of the Berne Convention. If a work is published within 30 days in several countries, it can have multiple "countries of origin".)
Copyright protection is granted only for a certain period—barring pathological cases where some work is placed under a
Basically all countries in the world specify that when a copyright expires, it does so at the end of the year. Thus, works of an author who died on June 27, 1937, did not become copyright-free on June 28, 2007, but only on January 1, 2008, under a "70 years p.m.a." rule.
Copyright term table
The following table is only for works registered or first published in the United States (where works registered up to 1977 count as published works).[30] Note that works of employees of the U.S. federal government prepared as part of their official duties are always in the public domain regardless of the table below, and that copyright terms for sound recordings, architecture, and works first published outside the US are different; a separate table for sound recordings first published in the United States is also shown below.
Published→
Created↓ |
–1928 | 1929–1963 | 1964–1977 | 1978–28 Feb 1989 | 1 Mar 1989–2002 | 2003– | Never | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
–1903 | PD | 95 if R and N |
95 if N |
S+ if N* |
S+ | S see U and D |
S see U and D | ||||
1904–1954 | PD | 95 if R and N |
95 if N |
S+ if N* |
S+ | S see D |
S see D | ||||
1955–1977 | 95 if R and N |
95 if N |
S+ if N* |
S+ | S | S | |||||
1978– | S if N* |
S | S | S | |||||||
Sound recordings (see section below) | |||||||||||
–1924 | 1925–1946 | 1947–1956 | 1957–14 Feb 1972 | 15 Feb 1972–1977 | 1978–28 Feb 1989 | 1 Mar 1989– | Never | ||||
–14 Feb 1972 | PD | 100 | 110 | 16 Feb 2067 | 95++ | S++ | S++ | S++ | |||
15 Feb 1972– | 95 if N |
S if N* |
S | S |
Green - All works are in the public domain due to copyright expiring
Yellow - Some works are in the public domain due to copyright expiring
Orange - Some works are in the public domain due to failure to conform to technicalities
Red - No works are in the public domain
Copyright term
Note: all specific dates are the first day that works are in the public domain.
PD - All works are in the public domain due to copyright expiring.
95/100/110 - Copyright expires the specified number of years after publication.
95++ - The later of 95 and 16 Feb 2067
S - Copyright expires 70 years after author's death; but if the work is anonymous or made for hire, or the author or the author's death date is unknown, copyright expires on the earlier of 95 years after publication or 120 years after creation.
S+ - The later of S and 1 Jan 2048
S++ - The later of S and 16 Feb 2067
16 Feb 2067 - Copyright term ends on specified date.
Conditions
R - Copyright was renewed in the 28th year after publication.
N - A compliant copyright notice was included.
N* - A compliant copyright notice was included, or the work was registered within five years of publication.
Notes
U - For works that are anonymous, made for hire, or where the author's identity or death date is unknown, works created 1903 and earlier are in the public domain.
D - For works not made for hire where the author's identity and death date are known, works whose author died 1954 or earlier are in the public domain.
Rule of the shorter term
- In short: The "rule of the shorter term" says that copyright protection in any signatory country of the Berne Convention ends when the copyright expires in the originating country. This rule is not binding. The US has not adopted it; the European Union (with exceptions!), Japan, Macao, and Taiwan have done so.
While the
The United States does not recognize this "shorter term" rule while 17 U.S.C. 104(c) reads: "Any rights in a work eligible for protection under this title that derive from this title, other Federal or State statutes, or the common law, shall not be expanded or reduced by virtue of, or in reliance upon, the provisions of the Berne Convention, or the adherence of the United States thereto." Furthermore, 17 U.S.C. 104A(a)(1)(B) may restore copyright on a work published outside the USA for the remaining American copyright term even if its copyright may expire sooner in its source country.
The
In East Asia,
However, some countries make exceptions to this rule. A notorious case is Germany, which has had a bilateral treaty with the US governing copyright since January 15, 1892. That treaty, which is still in effect, defined that a US work was copyrighted in Germany according to German law irrespective of the work's copyright status in the US, and it did not contain a "rule of the shorter term". In one case, a German court therefore decided that a US work that had fallen into the public domain in the US was still copyrighted in Germany in 2003 in spite of §7(1) of the EU directive.
See also OpenFlix for a useful list of countries and areas that do or do not honor the rule of the shorter term.
Country-specific rules
- In short: First publication is important, but difficult to ascertain.
- See also Commons:Licensing and Non-US copyrights.
Because copyright expiry is governed by local laws, some special noteworthy cases exist, in particular for photographs. These cases are interesting for Wikipedia if a work was not published in the US, because then, the law of the originating country must be examined. There is a whole slew of country-specific image copyright tags for precisely that purpose; see the
Some examples of such country-specific rules are:
- In AUSFTA), new legislation became effective on January 1, 2005, extending the copyright term (also on photographs) generally to 70 years p.m.a, but explicitly ruling out a revival of copyright on works whose copyright had already expired. Any photographs created before January 1, 1955, are thus in the public domain in Australia. The same also holds true for other works, which were protected 50 years p.m.a. before January 1, 2005: any work published before 2005 of an author who died before January 1, 1955 is in the public domain in Australia. See Infosheet G-23: Duration of Copyright Archived 2005-10-15 at the Wayback Machine by the Australian Copyright Council. These rules even apply for works where the government holds the copyright, i.e. that are under Crown copyright. (There is the template {{PD-Australia}} for tagging such images.) See also copyright expiration in Australia.
- In Canada, any photograph created (not published!) before January 1, 1949, and not covered by Crown copyright is in the public domain. This is a consequence of the Canadian Bill C-11: An Act to Amend the Copyright Act, which replaced the old rule for photographs ("copyright expires 50 years after creation of the work") by 50 years p.m.a., but not retroactively applying the new rule to works that were already in the public domain by the effective date of the bill, January 1, 1999 (see [2] Archived 2005-12-13 at the Wayback Machine at the bottom). Wikipedia has the template {{PD-Canada}} for tagging such images.
For an exhaustive list of the current situation in many countries, see Wikipedia:Copyright situations by country. This may help dealing with such cases. UNESCO also maintains a collection of copyright laws from many countries around the world. For works (photographs and others alike, but excepting sound recordings made before February 15, 1972) not published in the US, the following rule applies:
- If the work was in the public domain in the country of origin as of January 1, 1996, it is in the public domain in the US, (Even if it was published after 1929, but only if no copyright had been registered with the US Copyright Office.)
January 1, 1996, is the effective date for the copyright restorations of the US
For the above cases, this means:
- Australian photographs taken before January 1, 1946, not published in the US, and where no copyright was registered in the US, are in the public domain in Australia and the US.
- Other works first published in Australia whose author has died before January 1, 1946, and where no copyright was registered in the US are also in the public domain in Australia and the US.
- Canadian photographs taken before January 1, 1946, not subject to Crown copyright, not published in the US, and where no copyright was registered in the US are in the public domain in Canada and the US.
Additionally, because of the rule of the shorter term, such photographs are likely to be also in the public domain in Europe and in Japan, unless published there. (For the EU, one may probably even apply the 1955 and 1949 cut-off dates.)
The obvious difficulty here is to show that any particular work was indeed not published in the US, especially when considering works by Canadians. Even worse, one has to show that the work was indeed first published in Australia or Canada, respectively. If it was published in the US, the whole deliberation about copyright expiry in other countries does not come to play at all—the work is copyrighted in the US (unless it was published before 1929, or in a few very specific, difficult to verify cases, see "published works" below). If the work was published first in some third country—such as the United Kingdom—that third country is the country of origin, and consequently, one has to apply that country's copyright regulations to determine whether the work's copyright had expired by January 1, 1996. There are some other problems, too:
- If a work has multiple countries of origin because it was published in several countries within 30 days, it is unclear what rules would apply. Most probably, the copyright on the work would have to be expired in all of them by January 1, 1996, for the work to be in the public domain in the US.
- It is entirely unclear how retroactive legislation would affect this rule. What if a work had been in the public domain in its country of origin on January 1, 1996, but that country subsequently modified its copyright laws such that the work's copyright was reactivated?
In summary, the rules in the US for works published abroad are as follows:
- If the work was published before 1929, it is in the public domain in the US.[2] (With a caveat for works published without copyright notice, see the footnote.)
- If the work was published 1929 to 1995 (inclusive) and not copyrighted in its countries of origin in 1996, it is in the public domain in the US.
- Otherwise, if the work was published before 1978, it is copyrighted in the US for 95 years after the original publication, and if it was published 1978 or later, the work is copyrighted until 70 years after the (last surviving) author's death.
While the author of a photograph can often be determined quite easily, it may be rather difficult to ascertain where and when a particular image was first published. And strictly speaking one would also have to verify that a non-US work was not covered by copyright in the US by virtue of some
Crown copyrights
- In short: UK, Australian and Canadian Crown copyright expires world-wide, except in certain rare and specific cases.
An exception to this is UK Crown copyright. Although UK works on which the Crown copyright has expired also could still be copyrighted elsewhere, the British Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI), which manages all Crown copyrights on behalf of the copyright holder (the Crown), has explicitly stated in an e-mail to Wikipedia that they consider UK Crown copyright expiry to apply world-wide. A similar declaration has been made for Australia.
There is a flowchart explaining the precise rules for UK Crown copyright expiry. For photographs the rules are as follows:
- For photographs taken before June 1, 1957, Crown copyright expires 50 years after the creation of the image. All such photographs are therefore in the public domain.
- For photographs taken after that date and published before August 1, 1989, Crown copyright expires 50 years after the first publication. For photographs created between these two dates, but published only on or after the 1989 date, Crown copyright expires on December 31, 2039.
- For photographs created on or after August 1, 1989, Crown copyright expires 125 years after the creation or 50 years after the first publication of the image, whatever is earlier.
There is the template {{
Companies House - When downloading accounts for a Company listed, they are free of copyright and may be posted on any website. They are public record and statutory. The situation is the same for birth and death certificates. There is no copyright for this type of public record. Please see www.companieshouse.gov.uk.
Crown prerogative copyright
- In short: while Crown copyright normally expires after 50 years, Crown prerogative copyright is not subject to the normal statutory term and can instead last indefinitely.
Within Canadian Copyright law there is one exception however under section 12 of the Copyright Act which states that Crown copyright expires after 50 years "Without prejudice to any rights or privileges of the Crown",[32] which is further supported by the fact that "No enactment is binding on Her Majesty or affects Her Majesty or Her Majesty's rights or prerogatives in any manner, except as mentioned or referred to in the enactment".[33] In this way Crown Copyright held under the Royal Prerogative "is not subject to the usual statutory copyright term. The royal prerogative is referenced at the start of section 12 of the Copyright Act".[34] Further, the common law "prerogative right of the Crown to the exclusive printing of Acts of Parliament, Orders in Council, state papers, and other public documents is well established. The Crown prerogative, unlike rights under the [Copyright] Act, continues in perpetuity and is not limited to the term specified in the Act".[35] Professor David E. Smith further reinforces this point, stating "that this exclusive right to certain works by prerogative amounts to a perpetual term of copyright protection".[36] Subsequently, in certain cases such as when rights are held under the Crown prerogative, copyright can be "said to be perpetual...and not to lapse through non-use or non-assertion",[37] and that a "right to certain works by prerogative amounts to a perpetual term of copyright protection".[38]
When attempting to determine copyright status, "the following facts should be kept in mind. First, section 12 grants Her Majesty rights in works prepared or published by or under her direction or control...Second, the rights granted in section 12 generally limit the protection to 50 years following the first publication of the work whereas it is arguable that Crown copyright under the Crown prerogative is perpetual. Put another way, Crown copyright under the Crown prerogative is wider in scope and duration than what section 12 provides".[39]
Works of the United Nations
- In short: parliamentary documentation (official records, such as resolutions) and documents not offered for sale are in the public domain; other UN documents are copyrighted.
Works of the United Nations or one of its bodies are generally copyrighted.[40][41] In the interest of facilitating dissemination, the UN explicitly excludes some categories of its works from this general copyright and places them into the public domain: UN parliamentary documentation as well as public information material published under the UN document symbol and not offered for sale.[41] Such documents are in the public domain. UN parliamentary documentation comprises a broad set of official reports prepared by the UN secretariat and the UN official records.[42] UN official records are
- "publications relating to proceedings of organs or conferences of the United Nations. They include verbatim or summary records, documents and check-lists of documents, issued in the form of annexes to those records, including periodic supplements, such as the quarterly ones of the Security Council; and the reports of those organs of subordinate or affiliated bodies, compilations of resolutions, certain reports of the Secretary-General, and other selected publications".[43]
Published works
- In short: Copyright notices are not needed anymore. But they help determine who the author is.
Under the Berne Convention, copyright is automatic: no registration is needed, and it is not even necessary to display a copyright notice with the work for it to be copyright protected. Prior to the US adopting the Berne Convention (by amending its copyright law through the Berne Convention Implementation Act Archived 2011-04-06 at the Wayback Machine, effective March 1, 1989), this was not the case in the United States. A work was only copyrighted if published with a copyright notice, which could be as simple as a line saying "© year copyright holder". For US works there are therefore some special cases that place even works published after 1929 in the public domain. However, the necessary conditions are hard to verify.
- Published in the US, without a copyright notice:
- From 1929 to 1977: in the public domain
- From 1978 to March 1, 1989: only in the public domain if not registered since.
- Published in the US, with a copyright notice:
- From 1929 to 1963: only in the public domain if copyright not renewed. This may be hard to determine, and if renewed, the protection runs until 95 years after the initial publication. See the external links below and Circular 22 of the US Copyright Office for information on how to search the registry of the US Copyright Office for copyright registrations and renewals.
- From 1964 to 1977: not in the public domain for some time to come; copyright expires 95 years after the original publication.
- From 1978 to March 1, 1989: current standard rules apply (see just below).
- From March 1, 1989, to 2002: If created after 1977, a published work is copyrighted till 70 years after its author's death. For corporate or anonymous works, protection lasts for 95 years after publication or 120 years after creation, whichever expires first. If the work was created before 1978, another term (copyrighted until 31 December 2047) is considered. In this case, the greater term is taken (i.e. if the other terms expires before 31 December 2047, the copyright lasts till 31 December 2047). See Circular 1, "Works Originally Created Before January 1, 1978, But Not Published or Registered by That Date".
Even if a work was published in the US between 1929 and 1977 without a copyright notice, there would need to be proof to that effect. The proof must contain a valid resource justifying the claim in order for the US copyright office to accept it.
For works not published in the US but published first in some other country, see "country-specific rules" above.
Current standard copyright duration in US law
Works originally published in the US after 2002 (with or without copyright notice or registration) are protected until 70 years after the author's death (70 years p.m.a.); anonymous works,
Unpublished works
- In short: the 1929 date does not apply to unpublished works.
So far, we have only considered published works. To re-iterate from the Berne Convention, §3.3 Archived 2012-09-01 at WebCite:
- The performance of a dramatic, dramatico-musical, cinematographic or musical work, the public recitation of a literary work, the communication by wire or the broadcasting of literary or artistic works, the exhibition of a work of art and the construction of a work of architecture shall not constitute publication.
As long as a work is not published, it is unpublished. (Also note that by publication, the work must be made accessible to the general public, not only some closed audience. Furthermore, the publication must have had the consent of the author/creator or copyright holder of the work.)
Why is this important at all for Wikipedians? How could you come across an unpublished work?
Actually, that can happen easily with photographs in archives. Remember that "publication" requires the consent of the rights holder (initially the photographer). Many historic photos may thus actually be unpublished works, unless it can be shown that they were published in olden times. Especially items like private letters or family photographs, or photos found in some album, may well be unpublished. There are special exemptions in copyright law for libraries and archives that allow them to reproduce (even for the general public) such works for non-commercial uses, but that does not constitute "publication" unless done with the authorization of the rights holder.
The University of Wyoming's American Heritage Center has a three-page primer on the issues involved with unpublished works. Archives often do not hold the copyright to the items in their holdings. An archive only owns the copyright in a work if the copyright itself (not just the physical document embodying the work) has been transferred to the archive in a signed writing. In practice, many archive holdings may be so-called
Unpublished works are subject to copyright, too. To determine the copyright status of works published by archives that were not published elsewhere before, one will need to consider the rules for unpublished works. Until the US Copyright Act of 1976 became effective on January 1, 1978, US federal law only covered published works and unpublished works that were registered at the Copyright Office. Unpublished unregistered works were covered by state law. This "common law copyright" in most states granted unpublished works a perpetual copyright, valid until an eventual publication of the work.[44][45] Since 1978, US federal law also covers unpublished works (and preempts state law, see 17 USC 301). This gives the following situation in the US:
- Works created before 1978:
- If published before 1978, the work is subject to the rules for works published before 1978 regardless of when it was created. Because the common law copyright on unpublished works was perpetual, there were no unpublished works in the public domain back then, and thus the work was eligible for copyright when published. See published works.
- If the work was published 1978 to 2002 (inclusive), it is copyrighted according to the longer of the standard US rules, or until the end of 2047. (17 USC 303)
- If never published, or published after 2002, the work is copyrighted according to the standard US rules.
- Unpublished works created in 1978 or later are subject to the standard US rules.
Artworks
- In short: Artworks are likely to remain unpublished long after their creation date. A date of publication must be ascertained to establish PD status.
Another important class of possible unpublished works are artworks, in particular paintings. Because an artwork is not published by being exhibited, and also neither by being created or sold, one needs to know when reproductions of the artwork (photos, postcards, lithographs, casts of statues, and so on) were first published. That constitutes publication of the artwork, and from then on, the work is subject to all the rules for published works.
For most artworks, a year is usually given, but this is normally the year the work was made, not the year it was published. Figuring out whether and if so when a particular painting was published can be difficult.
In the case that an artwork created before 1978 is not published until 2003 or later, it comes into the public domain 70 years after the author's death. However, if it is first published between 1978 and 2002 (inclusive), it will still be copyrighted in the US until the end of 2047.
Proof of publication is mandatory; uploaders making a "public domain" claim on (a reproduction of) an artwork are required to prove with verifiable details that the work was first published before 1929, or first published after 2003 with an artist who died more than 70 years ago. To show that a work was published, one could look for printed works that contained reproductions of the artwork: art prints, art books, a catalogue raisonné of the artist's works, exhibition catalogs, and so on (although it is not clear when publishing a thumbnail constitutes publication of the original work). Reasonable effort should be made to find the earliest publication. If any is found from before 1929, that's good enough and the work is in the public domain. Remember, though, that "publication" means "lawful publication", which implies the consent of the author of the original.
If only a publication of 1929 or later can be asserted, the work should not be assumed to be in the public domain without evidence. If it was published before 1978 and had no
Country-specific rules for unpublished works
- In short: These rules vary greatly.
The Berne Convention leaves it to any signatory country to make its own rules regarding unpublished anonymous works (see §15(4)). Unpublished works by a known author, however, are subject to the same minimum protection (50 years p.m.a) as published works. But this is only a minimum protection. Individual countries can and do make their own rules regarding unpublished works, and often go beyond this minimum. Some cases to illustrate the possible complexities are:
- In Australia, unpublished literary, dramatic and music works are subject to a perpetual copyright. Furthermore, broadcasting or publicly performing such a work does constitute publication in Australia. (See Infosheet G-23: Duration of Copyright Archived 2005-10-15 at the Wayback Machine.)
- In the countries of the European Union, a publisher who publishes a previously unpublished work is granted the publication right on the work for a period of 25 years beginning with the eventual publication. This publication right is basically a copyright minus the moral rights, which are always granted to the author only.
- In Germany, a work of the fine arts (such as a painting) is considered "published" if the original or a copy was permanently made available to the general public with the consent of the rights holder. ("Permanently" means "with the intent to be accessible for the normal natural lifetime of the work", c.f. the explanation at the Commons.) Hence works of the fine arts can be "published" even if there are no copies.[46]
Such cases may be important when trying to determine whether a non-US work was copyrighted on January 1, 1996. See "country-specific rules" above.
Sound recordings
US
- In short: As of October 2018, there have been significant changes to US sound recording copyright law. All sound recordings are now under federal copyright rather than state law, and works published over 100 years ago are in the public domain. Foreign recordings from 1946 or later are subject to federal copyright.
"Sound recording" and "phonorecord" are the terms used in the US federal copyright law for records of music and speech alone, i.e. not together with images: videos, for instance, do not fall in this category. A "phonorecord" is the physical medium (LP, tape, CD, or other) on which a sound recording is fixed. Sound recordings, including digital recordings, are a very complex special case in US copyright law. (Note: although "sound recording" encompasses also non-musical sounds, the topic is discussed here in the context of music recordings without loss of generality.)
A sound recording is different from a musical work. A musical work would be a composition (notes and words). Publicly performing a musical work does not constitute "publication" in the sense of the copyright law. (Presumably, a musical work is published when the score sheets are published.) The publication of a sound recording before January 1, 1978, does not constitute publication of an underlying musical or dramatic or literary work (17 USC 303(b)).[29] Making a sound recording of a performance of a musical work requires the permission of the performer. (17 USC 1101) Performing a musical work requires the authorization of the copyright holder of that musical work. (17 USC 106(4)) Distributing phonorecords made from a performance of a musical work also requires the authorization of the copyright holder of the work performed (17 USC 106(3)). A sound recording is copyrighted separately from the musical work it records. Publicly distributing phonorecords of the sound recording constitutes publication of the sound recording. (17 USC 101)
So there are four different copyrights to be considered for a sound recording:
- The copyright of the composer
- The copyright of the texter, if any
- The copyright of the performer, and
- The copyright of the producer of the record
In the case of broadcasts, there's also the copyright of the broadcaster on the broadcast to consider. The copyrights of performers/record producers/broadcasters are called the "
As of October 2018, there have been significant changes to US sound recording copyright as a result of the Music Modernization Act (see [5] and [6]). Prior to the passage of the law, sound recordings made before February 15, 1972, were not covered by US federal copyright law, but were subject to state laws instead, effectively meaning that no sound recordings could be considered to be in the public domain, no matter how old. Under the Music Modernization Act, the situation is as follows:
- Works published prior to 1923 entered the public domain on January 1, 2022.
- Works published 1923–1946 will enter the public domain 100 years after the publication date.
- Works published 1947–1956 will enter the public domain 110 years after the publication date.
- Works published 1957–February 14, 1972, will enter the public domain on February 15, 2067.
On an international level, sound recordings are not covered by the Berne Convention. §2(1) of the Berne Convention only lists musical works, but not recordings of performances of such. Internationally, sound recordings are brought under the auspices of copyright protection by the Rome Convention, the WPPT, and the Geneva Phonograms Convention (in full: "Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms"). The US has never signed the Rome Convention, but has signed and ratified the WPPT (entry in force in the US was on March 20, 2002). Additionally, the US has ratified the Phonograms Convention in 1973, it entered in force on March 10, 1974.
An illustrative case in the US showing some of the complexities of determining the copyright status of even old recordings is Capitol Records v. Naxos of America, decided by the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court of the state of New York, on April 5, 2005. Briefly, that decision about old recordings that were made in the United Kingdom in the 1930s and that had entered the public domain there in the 1980s (50 years after their creation) stated that these were still eligible for copyright protection under the common law of the state of New York, even though they were in the public domain in the UK prior to January 1, 1996, and thus not eligible for copyright restoration under the URAA. The reason given was precisely that records from the 1930s were not covered by federal law and the URAA and its cut-off date did not apply to state law.
Despite sound recordings not being covered by the Berne Convention, and despite the fact that the US in 1996 was a member of neither the Rome Convention nor the WPPT, the
- CTEA.
UK
In the United Kingdom, the copyright of a sound recording expires 50 years after it was made. However, from 1 November 2013, the copyright of a sound recording expires 70 years from the end of the year of publication, when it was first played in public or communicated to the public, whichever event occurred first.[48]
Prior to November 2013, the copyright of a sound recording expired 50 years from the end of the year of publication, when it was first played in public or communicated to the public, whichever event occurred first. Therefore, any work which copyright expired on 1 January 2013 or prior will not be affected and remain in the public domain.[49]
Movies
- In short: many movies are derivative works of other, pre-existing works. They enter the public domain only when the copyrights on the movie and those on the underlying base work(s) have expired.
Movies are called "motion pictures" in the US Copyright law and belong to the class of "audiovisual works". A movie comprises both the sequence of images and the accompanying sound, if any.[50] (Incidentally, a movie soundtrack is not a "sound recording", 17 USC 101.) They are subject to the same copyright rules as other works, with a few extras. Among the exclusive rights of the copyright holder on a movie are the rights to display publicly the movie or individual images from it. Therefore, even the display of a single frame from a movie is subject to the copyright on the film.
For movies, the question of whether a movie is a published work may arise, because public showings in theaters do not constitute publication. At the same time, the process of disseminating a movie involves (or used to involve) a distributor placing copies of the movie in its branch offices (which were sometimes called "exchanges" or "regional exchanges") from where they would be rented to exhibitors.[51] According to legal writer Stephen Fishman, the legal consensus is that a movie is published for the purpose of copyright once the distributor has made copies available in its exchanges.[51] In particular, there is the court case American Vitagraph, Inc. v Levy, 659 F.2d 1023 (9th Cir. 1981). As such, a film that has been distributed and then shown in movie theaters to the general public can be treated as being published.
The matter of movies is complicated when the movie itself is a derivative work of some earlier work, for instance a previously published novel. As with all derivative works, the copyright on both the derivative and the underlying base work must have expired before the film is truly in the public domain. If only the rights on the film have expired, publication of the movie is still subject to the consent of the rights holder of the underlying work.
- "In Russell v. Price, 612 F.2d 1123,1128 (9th Cir. 1979), the court held that copyright owners of George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion, which was still covered by copyright, could prevent distribution of the film version of the play, even though the film had fallen into the public domain. Similarly, in Filmvideo Releasing Corp. v. Hastings, 668 F.2d 91,92 (2d Cir. 1981), the court held that even though films based on the Hopalong Cassidy stories had fallen into the public domain, a license for television exhibition had to be obtained from the owners of the copyrights in the underlying books, which were still protected by copyright."
- Quoted from Besek, footnote 88 on page 31.[47]
A similar case occurred with the film It's a Wonderful Life, which was thought to be in the public domain when its copyright owner failed to renew its copyright in 1974. However, in 1993, the copyright owner determined that it still held the rights to the underlying story.[52]
The situation gets even more confusing if the effects of renewals are taken into account. In particular, what about the status of derivative works created during the base work's initial copyright term, i.e., created before the renewal of the copyright on base work? In 1990, the US Supreme Court ruled in Stewart v. Abend (495 U.S. 207 (1990)) that the continued exhibition and distribution of the Hitchcock movie Rear Window was a copyright infringement on an underlying short story, on which the copyright had been renewed. On the other hand, this applies only to explicit copyright renewals, i.e. all pre-1964 renewals and those made voluntarily after 1964. As per 17 USC 304(a)(4)(A), it does not apply to automatic copyright renewals (since 1964).[53] See also Circular 15: Renewal of Copyright Archived 2007-08-29 at the Wayback Machine by the US Copyright Office.
Other issues that may arise with movies include the situation where a movie's footage shows items of preexisting artwork that are copyrighted separately from the movie.[54] (In some circumstances, such as if the artwork appears momentarily or is obscured or out of focus such that it is unidentifiable, the depiction of the artwork may be permissible under fair use.) In addition, though publication of a movie also constitutes publication of the underlying screenplay elements that the movie incorporates (see Shoptalk, Ltd. v Concorde-New Horizons, Corp., 168 F.3d 586 (2d Cir. 1999) and Batjac Productions, Inc. v Goodtimes Home Video Corp., 160 F.3d 1223 (9th Cir. 1998)),[55] it is not legally clear as to whether the publication of a movie constitutes publication of musical works that are included in the audio portion of the movie.[56]
Note that in most countries, all this is not an issue at all. As movies are granted the same copyrights with the same terms as the underlying work(s), the copyright on the underlying work typically expires first. But in the US, it is quite possible that the copyright on a movie was not renewed (or the movie was published without copyright notice) while the book on which it is based was properly copyrighted and renewed. In such cases, the movie will be in the public domain only when the book is in the public domain, too.
Animated movies (cartoons)
- In short: Cartoons (animated movies or comic strips) enter the public domain only when the copyrights on both the movie or strip and the character have expired.
With cartoons, a slightly different issue may arise. Cartoon characters are, themselves, objects of copyright,[57] as they themselves are works of art and not a phenomenon of nature. The most famous example is, most likely, Mickey Mouse. He appeared in 1928 in the animated movies Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie, and was copyrighted at that time. The copyright was properly renewed and, because of the terms of the Copyright Term Extension Act, its copyright runs for 95 years since the original publication and is currently set to expire at the end of 2023. The Mickey Mouse case is complicated even more because the character has become a trademark of The Walt Disney Company, which means that even "fair use" of the character must be carefully evaluated to avoid trademark infringement.[58]
Similar to the above, an animated movie enters the public domain only when the copyrights on both the movie and the character have expired. Even if there were a Mickey Mouse movie that was not under copyright due to non-renewal or other reasons, that movie would not be in the public domain until the end of 2023, when the copyrights on Plane Crazy, Steamboat Willie and on Mickey Mouse will have expired.
The same applies, of course, to other cartoon characters such as
TV shows
Many TV shows may in fact be unpublished works for the purpose of copyright because wireless broadcast does not constitute publication. In addition, it is not clear as to whether
Photographs of buildings
- In short: Photographs of civilian buildings from public places are OK in many, but not all, countries.
Buildings are works subject to copyright in the US according to 17 USC 102(a)(8) since the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act was passed in 1990. It applies to all buildings that were completed (not begun) after December 1, 1990, or where the plans were published after that date. However, the US federal copyright law explicitly exempts photographs of such copyrighted buildings from the copyright of the building in 17 USC 120(a). Anyone may take photographs of buildings from public places. The photographer holds the exclusive copyright to such an image (the architect or owner of the building has no say whatsoever), and may publish the image in any way. In German copyright law, this is called "Panoramafreiheit". Not all countries recognize this right; in France and Greece for instance, there is no such freedom of panorama and thus the copyright holder of a building has the right to control the distribution of photographs of the building.
17 USC 120 applies only to architectural works, not to other works of visual art, such as statues. In many other countries, this freedom of panorama extends also to works of the visual arts that are permanently located in public places, but that is not the case in the United States. In many countries, taking photographs of military installations is also illegal or it is illegal to reproduce cultural heritage without the permission of its owner (but that prohibition is independent of copyright).
- See also the list of panorama freedom legislation around the world at the Commons.
Derived works and restorations of works in the public domain
- In short: These may give rise to new copyright on the new work, but not on the public domain original.
A work that is derived or adapted from a public domain work can itself be protected by copyright only to the extent that the derived work contains elements of originality contributed by the author of the derived work. For example, an abstract painting of a famous photograph would be protectable, as is the distinctive rendition of the
A work that is merely a "slavish copy", or even a restoration of an original public domain work is not subject to copyright protection. In the case of Hearn v. Meyer, 664 F. Supp 832 (S.D.N.Y. 1987), an illustrator attempted unsuccessfully to claim copyright on his restored versions of original Wizard of Oz illustrations. The illustrations were in the public domain, and the court found that the act of rendering them with bolder and more vibrant colors was not an original contribution sufficient to remove the restored works from the public domain.
The
Public records
- In short: being in the public record generally has no bearing on the copyright status of an item. Works in the public record may or may not be copyrighted.
Many items in the US public records are in the public domain as works of the US federal government, such as court decisions by federal courts. The constitution and statutes of some states, such as California and Florida, generally do not permit public records to be copyrighted.[61][62] Other kinds of works in the public record (third-party works, works and software created by contractors for a state or local government) may be copyrighted, though;[11][12] even when they have become part of the public record.
In the United Kingdom, many items in the public records are copyrighted. Official works in the UK are under Crown copyright, and this copyright subsists if the item was published before it was placed in a public record repository. Only for works that were placed in such repositories without having been published before, the Crown waives its copyright.[63]
Copyright restorations
- In short: Works that were already out of copyright may sometimes become copyrighted again!
Common sense would suggest that once the copyright of a particular work has expired in a country and it had thus entered the public domain in that country, it would always remain in the public domain there. Unfortunately, this is not always true. It is possible that the copyright laws of a country are changed such that works already out of copyright under the old law become copyrighted again under the new law. Such copyright restorations complicate considerably the matter of deciding whether a work is indeed in the public domain.
There are several examples of such laws restoring copyrights. In the EU, the
Such copyright restorations typically are not
Because the URAA became effective only on January 1, 1996 (half a year after the EU directive), any copyrights restored in the EU by the directive also became restored in the US.
Countries without copyright treaties with the US
- In short: Use such works under a "public domain" claim only if the copyright in the country of origin has expired. Do not include those in Wikipedia without discussing at talk page first.
According to Circular 38a of the US Copyright Office, as of January 2021, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran and Iraq have no copyright relations with the US.[64] Works published in one of these countries by a resident citizen of that country thus are not copyrighted in the United States, irrespective of the local copyright laws of these countries.[65]
On Wikipedia, such works may be used under a "public domain" claim only if their copyright in the country of origin has expired, even though legally the work is in the public domain in the US.
Example cases
German World War II images
The issue of German photographs from World War II has created some confusion. Are they still copyrighted? What about governmental images (such as propaganda)? What about images seized by Nazi Germany?
The copyright situation in Germany concerning such images is in itself confusing. Originally, these images were subject to the 1907 Kunsturhebergesetz (KUG) Archived 2012-12-31 at the Wayback Machine, which provided for a copyright term for photographs of 10 years from publication, or 25 years p.m.a. for unpublished works. In 1940, the KUG was modified to provide a copyright term of 25 years from publication, also applicable to all works that were either still unpublished or still copyright protected (§26). In 1965, the first version of the German Urheberrechtsgesetz (UrhG) became effective, again with a copyright term for photographs of 25 years from publication, or 25 years from creation, if the image had not been published in that time (§68). As a result, copyright on photographs from the World War II expired at the end of 1970.[67]
However, with the 1993 EU
As a result, such images were copyright protected on January 1, 1996[70] (which is the critical date as far as US copyright law is concerned), and therefore, they are copyrighted even in the US.
The situation of German World War II photographs found in US governmental archives is controversial. They might fall (in the US only) under 17 U.S.C. 104A(a)(2), which exempts from the URAA copyright restorations works on which the copyright was seized and administered by the US Office of the
Another example are German
In the United Kingdom, confiscated German works brought into the country between September 3, 1939, and July 9, 1951, had all German interests, both physical ownership and intellectual property rights such as copyrights or patents, extinguished by the Enemy Property Act of 1953. This expropriation affected only the status of such works within the UK; the international rights on German works were left untouched.[74] This act was repealed in 1976, but the copyrights on such seized works were not restored in the UK.[75][76]
See also
- Wikipedia:Copyright
- Wikipedia:Copyright FAQ
- Wikipedia:Granting work into the public domain
- Wikipedia:File copyright tags
- Wikipedia:Public domain resources
- Wikipedia:Public domain image resources
- Wikisource:Help:Public domain – determine whether a work is in the public domain and which template to use
Footnotes
- ^ This is required for Wikipedia to be a reliable encyclopedia, even if it is written by non-experts.
- ^ a b Strictly speaking, only US works published before January 1, 1929, and foreign works published in compliance with US formalities (registration, © notice) before that date are in the public domain in the US. For non-US works published without compliance with US formalities (i.e., without © notice), the situation is a bit more complicated:
- If published before 1909, such works are in the public domain in the US.
- If published between 1909 and 1928 (inclusive) in a language other than English, the ISBN 0-820-51465-9), the standard commentary on US copyright law.
- If published between 1909 and 1928 (inclusive) in English, they are highly likely to be PD, given that the aforementioned controversial case was only about a work published in a foreign language.
- Additionally, any work first published outside of the United States without copyright notice before 1989, when the US joined the Berne Convention, is in the public domain in the US if it was in the public domain in its country of origin on the URAA date (in most cases January 1, 1996). See the section on country-specific rules for more information.
- ^ Most countries have had similar copyright extensions in the past, the date ranges from the 1850s to 1930s in said countries.
- ^ 17 U.S.C. § 101
- ^ "Ley Núm. 55 de 2012 -Ley de Derechos Morales de Autor de Puerto Rico". LexJuris (Leyes y Jurisprudencia) de Puerto Rico (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 19 February 2021.
- ^ a b "Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, § 313.6(C)(1)" (PDF). United States Copyright Office. 22 December 2014. p. 36. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 December 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
- ^ : Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works
- ^ See the CENDI Copyright FAQ list, 3.1.7 Archived 2009-03-04 at the Wayback Machine and a discussion on that at the LibraryLaw Blog Archived 2021-02-19 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ US Government: Copyright and Other Rights Pertaining to U.S. Government Works Archived 2021-02-19 at the Wayback Machine, retrieved 2010-10-14.
- ^ "Frequently Asked Questions About Copyright, "3.1.9 Are Government websites provided copyright protection?"". CENDI. 8 October 2008. Archived from the original on 4 March 2009. Retrieved 29 December 2010.
- ^ a b Publications of US state, district, county, or municipal agencies are eligible for copyright. Only works of federal agencies are exempt from copyright; see Radcliffe & Brinson: Copyright Law Archived 2006-06-21 at the Wayback Machine, or the CENDI Copyright FAQ list, 3.1.3.
- ^ a b CENDI Copyright FAQ list, section 4.0 Archived 2009-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, and 17 USC 105 Archived 2017-12-25 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ a b c Gorman, R. A.: Copyright Law, 2nd ed. Archived 2017-10-06 at the Wayback Machine, US Federal Judicial Center, June 19, 2006, section "Government works" on pp. 52–54. URL last accessed 2018-10-20.
- ^ See Korean War Veterans Memorial#United States postage stamp court case.
- ^ See "Intellectual Property Rights" in the US Mint website's privacy policy [1] Archived 2007-02-05 at the Wayback Machine.
- ^ See Wheaton v. Peters (1834)(opinions of US Supreme Court) and Banks v. Manchester (1888)(applying same principle to state judicial records).
- ^ In Banks v. Manchester, 128 U.S. 244 Archived 2018-10-25 at the Wayback Machine (1888), the US Supreme Court cited a Massachusetts court's opinion in its reasoning that state court judicial opinions cannot be copyrighted: "The whole work done by the judges constitutes the authentic exposition and interpretation of the law, which, binding every citizen, is free for publication to all, whether it is a declaration of unwritten law, or an interpretation of a constitution or a statute." However, it ruled in a case later that year that a state-employed court reporter that compiled cases and law reports of the Illinois Supreme Court could copyright the portion of the compilations "which is the result of his intellectual labor", but reiterated its previous decisions that "there can be no copyright in the opinions of the judges of a court, or in the work done by them in their official capacity as judges." Callaghan v. Myers, 128 U.S. 617 Archived 2018-12-30 at the Wayback Machine (1888). The US Supreme Court has not addressed the intersection of copyright protection for law since then. Lower courts have differed in deciding whether copyright can be claimed in works created by third parties and incorporated into state law/regulations or municipal ordinances (e.g. annotated codes, building codes). See Code Revision Commission v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. Archived 2018-10-19 at the Wayback Machine, slip opinion at 13-26 (2018), Id. at 19 (listing cases in various circuits).
- ^ a b "Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, § 313.6(C)(2) ("Government Edicts")" (PDF). United States Copyright Office. 22 December 2014. p. 37–38. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 December 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
As a matter of longstanding public policy, the U.S. Copyright Office will not register a government edict that has been issued by any state, local, or territorial government, including legislative enactments, judicial decisions, administrative rulings, public ordinances, or similar types of official legal materials. Likewise, the Office will not register a government edict issued by any foreign government or any translation prepared by a government employee acting within the course of his or her official duties.... A work that does not constitute a government edict may be registered, even if it was prepared by an officer or employee of a state, local, territorial, or foreign government while acting within the course of his or her official duties.
- ^ a b c "Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, § 313.2" (PDF). United States Copyright Office. 22 December 2014. p. 22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2014.
To qualify as a work of 'authorship' a work must be created by a human being.... Works that do not satisfy this requirement are not copyrightable. The Office will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants. Likewise, the Office cannot register a work purportedly created by divine or supernatural beings.... Similarly, the Office will not register works produced by a machine or mere mechanical process that operates randomly or automatically without any creative input or intervention from a human author.
[dead link] The Compendium lists several examples of such ineligible works, including "a photograph taken by a monkey" and "a mural painted by an elephant". - ^ "Editorial Standards". United States Patent and Trademark Office. Archived from the original on 25 September 2009. Retrieved 22 November 2005.
- ^ Bridgeman Art Library, Ltd. v. Corel Corp., 25 F. Supp. 2d 421 (S.D.N.Y. 1998), aff‟d on reh‟g, 36 F. Supp. 2d 191 (S.D.N.Y. 1999).
- ^ "Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, § 313.3(D) ("Typeface and Mere Variations of Typographic Ornamentation")" (PDF). United States Copyright Office. 22 December 2014. p. 25. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
The copyright law does not protect typeface or mere variations of typographic ornamentation or lettering.
- ^ "Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, § 906.4 ("Typeface, Typefont, Lettering, Calligraphy, and Typographic Ornamentation")" (PDF). United States Copyright Office. 22 December 2014. p. 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
As a general rule, typeface, typefont, lettering, calligraphy, and typographic ornamentation are not registrable.
- ^ "Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (c. 48), section 54". Archived from the original on 26 October 2019. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
- ^ "OAMI-ONLINE - The Community Design in Practice". Archived from the original on 6 April 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2006.
- ^ "OAMI-ONLINE - The Community Design in Practice". Archived from the original on 6 April 2011. Retrieved 10 September 2006.
- ^ 130 III 714 S. 714 Archived 2015-06-05 at the Wayback Machine. URL last accessed 2015-01-27
- ^ WIPO Copyright Treaty Archived 2006-06-24 at the Wayback Machine, article 2: Scope of Copyright Protection. URL last accessed June 21, 2006.
- ^ a b "Library Services - Copyright Policy". Florida Gulf Coast University. 11 December 1998. Archived from the original on 4 June 2012. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
- WP:PD
- ^ US Copyright Office: Circular 38b: Highlights of Copyright Amendments Contained in the URAA Archived 2005-11-27 at the Wayback Machine, URL last accessed 2007-01-30.
- ^ "Copyright Act (Canada), S. 12". Archived from the original on 20 December 2013. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
- ^ "Interpretation Act (Canada), S. 17". Archived from the original on 13 July 2017. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
- ^ Judge, Elizabeth (2005). "Crown Copyright and Copyright Reform in Canada". In the Public Interest: The Future of Canadian Copyright Law. Irwin Law. p. 557.
- ISBN 978-0195369427.
- ISBN 978-1442615854.
- ^ Vaver, David (6 June 1995). "Copyright and the State in Canada and the United States". University of Montreal. Archived from the original on 27 May 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2013.
- ISBN 978-1442615854.
- ^ Vancise, William J.; Majeau, Claude; Théberge, Jacinthe (2012). "Collective Administration in relation to rights under sections 3, 15, 18 and 21 (Crown Immunity)" (PDF). Ottawa: Copyright Board of Canada. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 31 March 2017. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
- ^ "Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, § 313.6(C)(2) ("Government Edicts")" (PDF). United States Copyright Office. 22 December 2014. p. 38. Archived from the original (PDF) on 23 December 2014. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
Section 104(b)(5) of the Act states that works first published by the United Nations or any of its specialized agencies, or first published by the Organization of American States are eligible for copyright protection in the United States.
- ^ a b c United Nations, administrative instruction ST/AI/2001/5: United Nations Internet publishing, section 5: Copyright policy and disclaimers Archived 2006-11-09 at the Wayback Machine, August 22, 2001. Also see §3.29 ("Use of photos") of that document. URL last accessed 2006-11-08.
- ^ United Nations: UN OIOS Glossary, entry on Parliamentary documentation Archived 2011-04-06 at the Wayback Machine. URL last accessed 2006-11-08.
- ^ United Nations, administrative instruction ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.2. URL last accessed 2006-11-07. This temporary administrative instruction was prolonged indefinitely by ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.2/Add.2 in 1992.
- ^ Oakley, R. L.: Copyright and Preservation – Is the Work Protected? Archived 2021-02-19 at the Wayback Machine, CLIR, 1990. (A good explanation, but note that some dates mentioned there have been superseded by the copyright term extension of the CTEA in 1998.) URL last accessed 2007-02-16.
- ^ N.N.: Historical and Revision Notes on 17 USC 301. Legal Information Institute, Cornell University. URL last accessed 2016-06-16.
- ^ German Urherberrechtsgesetz, article 6(2) Archived 2007-06-07 at the Wayback Machine. URL last accessed 2007-08-13.
- ^ ISBN 1-932326-23-5. URL last accessed 2007-08-23. See in particular p. 18f on restoration of foreign sound recordings, and footnote 88 on p. 31 for evidence that all four (or five) different copyrights need to have expired.
- ^ "Sound Recordings". Archived from the original on 5 April 2010. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
- ^ "Term of protection for sound recordings and performers' rights". Archived from the original on 23 December 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2014.
- US House of Representatives
- ^ ISBN 9781413317213. Retrieved 4 September 2012 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Ochoa, T.: Re: Films in Public Domain Archived 2010-07-25 at the Wayback Machine, E-Mail to listserv, February 27, 2002; citing Steven Mitchell Schiffman, Movies in the Public Domain: A Threatened Species 20 Columbia-VLA J. L. Arts 663, 671-72 (1996) and Debra L. Quentel, "Bad Artists Copy. Good Artists Steal": The ugly Conflict between Copyright Law and Appropriationism, 4 UCLA Ent. L. Rev. 39, 47 n.46 (1996). URL last accessed 2007-08-28.
- ^ Gorman, R. A.: Copyright Law, 2nd ed. Archived 2007-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, US Federal Judicial Center, June 19, 2006. Sub-section "Derivative works prepared during the initial term", pp. 60–62. URL last accessed 2007-08-27.
- ISBN 9781413317213. Retrieved 30 August 2012 – via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 9781413317213. Retrieved 30 August 2012 – via Internet Archive.
- ISBN 9781413317213. Retrieved 30 August 2012 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Gorman, R. A.: Copyright Law, 2nd ed. Archived 2007-09-26 at the Wayback Machine, US Federal Judicial Center, June 19, 2006. Section "Pictorial and literary characters", p. 50. URL last accessed 2007-08-27.
- ^ Moffat, V.: Mutant Copyrights and Backdoor Patents: The Problem of Overlapping Intellectual Property Protection Archived 2007-10-13 at the Wayback Machine, Berkeley Technology Law Journal, Vol. 19, 2004, pp. 1474–1532. (Alternate link to full article Archived 2006-06-26 at the Wayback Machine)
- ^ ISBN 9781413317213. Retrieved 4 September 2012 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Davis, Karen: Guidance Regarding the Use of Copyrighted Material Under the Access to Public Records Act Archived 2007-03-28 at the Wayback Machine, Public Access Counselor, US State of Indiana, October 31, 2005. URL last accessed 2006-12-22.
- ^ Microdecisions, Inc. v. Skinner Archived 2011-04-06 at the Wayback Machine, Case no. 2D03-3346, Florida Court of Appeal, Second District (Dec. 1, 2004), construing Florida Statutes § 119.07 Archived 2019-06-13 at the Wayback Machine. See Microdecisions, Inc. v. Skinner
- ^ Florida senate committee report On public records and copyright Archived 2009-06-24 at the Wayback Machine, September 2005.
- ^ UK Office of Public Sector Information: Copyright in Public Records Archived 2007-02-12 at the Wayback Machine, November 30, 2006. URL last accessed 2006-12-22.
- ^ As of January 2021, the status of East Timor, Palau, Somalia and South Sudan is stated as "unclear".
- ^ Peter Hirtle's chart Archived 2017-08-25 at the Wayback Machine specifies the condition that a work has been produced by "a resident of" a country without copyright relations and published in that country. Stephen Fishman's "Public Domain" book Archived 2021-02-19 at the Wayback Machine (Nolo, 2012, pg. 351) specifies the condition that a work has been published in a country without copyright relations and that the publication have been done by a citizen of that country.
- Jimbo Wales, and the 2012 RFCconfirming this position.
- EU directive 93/98/EEChad the effect of making most photos qualify as photographic works. See Seiler on this.
- ^ See the 1879 copyright law of Spain Archived 2012-02-11 at the Wayback Machine: the 80-year term remained valid even in the 1987 copyright law Archived 2004-11-28 at archive.today (transitional provisions, article 1(2)) and in the 1996 copyright law Archived 2005-02-28 at archive.today, which implemented that EU directive (transitional provisions, fourth article).
- EU directive 93/98/EECbecause it was still copyrighted in Spain on July 1, 1995.
- ^ See the section explaining the URAA above.
- ^ a b c d United States: Federal Register Vol. 63, No. 74 / Friday, April 17, 1998 Archived October 14, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, pp. 19289–19290. URL last accessed 2007-04-16.
- ISBN 0871798549. URL last accessed 2007-04-16.
- doi:10.1080/01439689700260721. See also Civil Action 98-857 before the US District Court for the District of Columbia, Judge Henry H. Kennedy. Ultimately, the US Supreme Court denied the Hoffmann heirs review of the lower courts' decision in their disfavor. (See the opinion of the US Solicitor General Archived 2008-01-26 at the Wayback Machine and the Journal of the U.S. Supreme Court, October 2004, p. 298.) URLs last accessed 2007-04-16.
- ^ Imperial War Museum: Standard Terms and Conditions Governing the Release and Use of Film and Visual Material Archived 2007-06-16 at the Wayback Machine. URL last accessed 2007-05-30.
- ^ Best, H.: The spoils of war: German Films and UK Enemy Property Act 1953 Archived 2017-10-14 at the Wayback Machine, Bird & Bird, January 7, 2002. URL last accessed 2012-08-15.
- ^ Best, H: Booty in the eye of the beholder, Bird & Bird, February 10, 2005. URL last accessed 2012-08-15.
External links
General:
- Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States copyright.cornell.edu
- Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States Archived 2012-07-04 at the Wayback Machine by Peter Hirtle.
- Sound Recordings and Copyright in the UK. A guide for those engaged in the restoration of public domain sound recordings.
- Collection of National Copyright Laws by the UNESCO.
- Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) Archived 2006-06-15 at the WIPO.
- Copyright laws Archived 2007-08-21 at the Wayback Machine of ASEAN countries.
- Copyright laws Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine of countries that formerly were part of the Soviet Union.
- International Copyright Relations of the U.S. – Circular 38a of the US Copyright Office.
- Copyright guidelines from the University of Chicago Press.
- The copyright status Archived 2010-07-12 at the Wayback Machine of the works of James Joyce. Illustrates some of the complications that may arise.
- Gorman, R.: Copyright Law, 2nd ed. US Federal Judicial Center, June 19, 2006. URL last accessed 2006-10-27.
- Public Domain Day: with many links to useful tools to find and determine PD works
- Public Domain calculator Archived 2015-01-18 at the Wayback Machine by Europeana (flowcharts / guiding texts Archived 2014-04-28 at the Wayback Machine)
- Guadamuz, A. Comparative Analysis of National Approaches on Voluntary Copyright Relinquishment (2013).
Copyright renewals in the US:
- On-line database for copyright registrations and renewals in the US since 1978
- TIFF scans of the registry of the US Copyright Office 1950–1977, with a bias towards books.
- digitized versions of the registry of the US Copyright Office 1950–1977, with a bias towards books, hosted by Project Gutenberg.
- Searchable database of the digitized copyright renewal records for books.