Commons:Licensing

From Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository

[edit] Acceptable licenses

A copyright license is a formal permission stating who may use a copyrighted work and how they may use it. A license can only be granted by the copyright holder, which is usually the author (photographer, painter or similar).

All copyrighted material on Commons must be licensed under a free license that allows anyone to use the material for any purpose. In particular, the license must meet the following conditions:

The following restrictions must not apply to the image or other media file:

For example, the following are generally not allowed:

Commons also allows works that are not protected by copyright (i.e. works in the public domain). Please read the section about public domain below.

[edit] Multi-licensing

You can offer as many licenses for a file as you want as long as at least one of them meets the criteria for free licenses above. For example, files under a "non-commercial" license are OK only if they are at the same time also released under a free license that allows commercial use.

Multi-Licensing with restrictive licenses may be desirable for compatibility with the licensing scheme of other projects; also, multi-licensing allows people who create derivative work to release that work under a restrictive license only, if they wish—that is, it gives creators of derivative works more freedom with regards to which license they may use for their work.

[edit] Well-known licenses

The following well-known licenses are preferred for materials on Commons:

Again, works in the public domain are also accepted (see below). See Commons:Copyright tags for more licenses.

Note: The GFDL is not practical for photos and short texts, especially for printed media, because it demands that they be published along with the full text of the license. Thus, it is preferable to publish the work with a dual license, adding to the GFDL a license that permits use of the photo or text easily; a Creative Commons License, for example. Also, do not use the GPL and LGPL licenses as the only license for your own works if it can be avoided, as they are not really suitable for anything but computer programs.

Works which are not available under a license which meets the Definition of Free Cultural Works are explicitly not allowed. See the Wikimedia Foundation board resolution on licensing for more information.

Common examples of licensing statuses commonly found on the Internet, but forbidden on Commons, include:

Non-permitted licenses may only be used on Commons if the work is multi-licensed under at least one permitted license.

[edit] License information

All description pages on Commons must indicate clearly under which license the materials were published, and must contain the information required by the license (author, etc.) and should also contain information sufficient for others to verify the license status (source link) even when not required by the license itself or by copyright laws.

Specifically, the following information must be given on the description page, regardless if the license requires it or not:

Of less importance, but should always be provided if possible:

These points of the description can be done at best using the Information template. For usage of this template see Commons:First steps/Quality and description.

[edit] Scope of licensing

In some cases, a document (media file) may have multiple aspects that can and have to be licensed: Every person that contributed a critical part of the work has rights to the results, and all have to make their contribution available under a free license - see derivative work. However, the distinctions are unclear and may differ from country to country. Here are a few examples to clarify:

This is often problematic, if the artwork is not the primary content of the image or is not clearly recognizable: in that case, usually only the creator of the resulting picture (recording, etc.) holds a copyright. For instance, when taking a photograph of a group of people in a museum, the photo may also show some painting on the walls. In that case the copyright of those painting does not have to be taken into account. The distinction however is not very clear.

Note that the license for all aspects has to be determined and mentioned explicitly.

Also note that reproductions usually may not be copyrighted; the creator of an image of a picture owns no copyright to the resulting digital image. The only relevant copyright is that of the original picture. This also applies to Screenshots.

[edit] Material in the public domain

Commons accept material that is in the public domain, that is, documents that are not eligible to copyright or for which the copyright has expired. But the "public domain" is complicated; copyright laws vary between countries, and thus a work may be in the public domain in one country, but still be copyrighted in another country. There are international treaties such as the Berne Convention that set some minimum standards, but individual countries are free to go beyond these minimums. A general rule of thumb is that if the creator of a work has been dead for more than 70 years, his works are in the public domain in the country the creator was a citizen of and in the country where the work was first published. If the work is anonymous or a collaborative work (e.g. an encyclopedia), it is typically in the public domain 70 years after the date of the first publication.

Many countries use such a copyright term of 70 years. A notable exception is the U.S. Due to historical circumstances, the U.S. has more complex rules. In the United States, copyright generally lasts:

For works created before 1978 but only published 1978 or later, there are some special rules. These terms apply in the U.S. also for foreign works.

However, the year and location of publication is essential. In several countries, material published before a certain year is in the public domain. In the U.S. this date is January 1, 1923. Furthermore, in some countries all material published by the government is public domain, while others claim some copyrights, yet others are very restrictive (see country specific details below).

Regarding the United States and non-U.S. works, one should bear in mind that the U.S. passed a law (the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, URAA) that restored copyrights in the U.S. on foreign works if that work was still copyrighted in the foreign source country on the URAA date. This URAA date was January 1, 1996 for most countries. This means that foreign works became copyrighted in the U.S. even if they had been in the public domain in the U.S. before the URAA date. See also Wikipedia:Non-U.S. copyrights.

In some jurisdictions (like the United States), one can also explicitly donate work one has created oneself to the public domain. In other places (like the European Union) this is technically not possible, but one can grant the right to use the picture freely with, for example, a Creative Commons license.

[edit] Interaction of United States copyright law and foreign copyright law

Commons is an international project, but its servers are located in the U.S., and its content should be maximally reusable. Uploads of non-U.S. works are normally allowed only if the work is covered by a free license valid in both the U.S. and the country of origin of the work, or if it is in the public domain in both countries. The "country of origin" of a work is generally the country where the work was first published.

When uploading material from a country outside the U.S., the copyright laws of that country and the U.S. normally apply. If material that has been saved from a third-party website is uploaded to Commons, the copyright laws of the U.S., the country of residence of the uploader, and the country of location of the web servers of the website apply. Thus, any licence to use the material should apply in all relevant jurisdictions; if the material is in the public domain, it must normally be in the public domain in all these jurisdictions (plus in the country of origin of the work) for it to be allowable on Commons.

For example, if a person in the UK uploads a picture that has been saved off a French website to the Commons server, the upload must be covered by UK, French and US copyright law. For a photograph to be acceptable for upload to Commons, it must be public domain in France, the UK and the US, or there must be an acceptable copyright licence for the photograph that covers the UK, US and France.

Exception: Faithful reproductions of 2D works of art that are in the public domain are an exception to this rule following a WMF position statement in July 2008 to the effect that such photographs are themselves considered to be in the public domain. For details, see Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag.

[edit] Material under the fair use clause is not allowed on Commons

Wikimedia Commons does not accept fair use content, because fair use laws vary from country to country—thus, content deemed acceptable under, for instance, US fair use concepts (which are very broad) is not usable in the majority of other countries.

Also, fair use depends on the context the image (or other media) is used in. That is, something that can be used on one page as fair use would be a copyright violation on another page. Especially, fair use does not allow collecting and distributing the images in a media database such as Commons. This means that fair use simply does not apply to Commons.

Both issues are against the Commons policy to provide images that can be used by anyone anywhere for any purpose.

You are, however, welcome to submit such images to your local Wiki, if it allows fair use.

[edit] Derivative works

You want a picture of Mickey Mouse, but of course you can't just scan it in. Why not take a picture of a little action figure and then upload it? Don't. The reason why you can't upload photographs of such figures is that they are considered as derivative works. Such works can't be published without permission of the original creator.

The US Copyright Act of 1976, Section 101, says: "A derivative work is a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a “derivative workâ€." A photograph of a copyrighted item is considered a derivative work in US jurisdiction. US Copyright Act of 1976, Section 106: "(...) The owner of copyright under this title has the exclusive rights to do and to authorize any of the following: (...) (2) to prepare derivative works based upon the copyrighted work;"

Therefore, "unauthorized" derivative works like pictures of action figures, toys etc. must be deleted.

For more information, see Commons:Derivative works.

[edit] Simple design

Most commercial items and products are protected by intellectual property laws in one way or another, but copyright is only one such protection. It is important to make the distinction between copyright, trademarks, and patents. Wikimedia Commons generally only enforces copyright restrictions, for these reasons:

Commons accepts images of text in a general typeface and of simple geometric shapes, even if it happens to be a trademarked logo.^[2] Such images should be tagged with {{PD-textlogo}}. Any design which is an artistic work may be copyrighted, however.

It is often very difficult to determine whether a design is protected by copyright or not, and images of these sorts are frequently nominated for deletion, with various results.

[edit] Fonts

The design of a font (or typeface) is not subject to copyright in the U.S. It may be copyrighted in other countries (see Fonts on English Wikipedia).

[edit] Checklist

Let's assume you took a picture with your camera, or you've scanned it from somewhere, or you've downloaded it off a web server - and want to upload it to Wikimedia Commons. How do you know what's OK and what's not? Here's a simple chart that helps you decide. In cases of doubt, read the further advice for your country first. If you still don't know for sure, ask on Commons:Help desk or Commons:Village pump in your local language.

See Commons:Image casebook for a more complete list.

[edit] OK

Own photos of:

Own scans of:

Material from web servers:

[edit] Questionable, may or may not be OK

All kinds of copyrighted material, when uploader does not own the copyright:

Photographs, drawings, scans and other reproductions of:

[edit] not OK

[edit] International law

[edit] Berne Convention

Almost all countries in the world are party to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (see here for the text). Following this convention, countries enforce copyrights from other countries, according to certain rules. One consequence of these rules is that we should always care about the laws of the country of origin of the work.

Most important is article 7, which sets the term of duration of the protections granted by the Convention. The Convention sets a minimal term of 50 years after the life of the authors (subject to some exceptions). However, each country is free to set longer terms.

In any case, the term shall be governed by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed; however, unless the legislation of that country otherwise provides, the term shall not exceed the term fixed in the country of origin of the work.

Even though many countries have accepted the rule of the shorter term based on Article 7 of the Convention, please note that the United States Copyright Act has not honored such a rule. For example, 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. This may affect works that were still copyrighted on 1 January 1996 in their source countries. This mean that a work now in the public domain in a Commons user's home country might still be legally copyrighted in the USA. For further details, please visit w:en:Wikipedia:Non-US_copyrights#Dates_of_restoration_and_terms_of_protection for a list of American copyright restoration dates.

[edit] European copyright law

The European Union has issued directives harmonizing copyright rules in the European Union (see Copyright law of the European Union). Note, however, that directives, unlike European regulations, do not apply uniformly. They have to be transposed into national law by each country's legislature, and they often offer significant leeway in doing so. This is, for instance, the case for the legal exemptions of copyright (equivalent of "fair use"), which are allowed to differ within certain limits.

The most important, for our purposes, is the Directive on harmonizing the term of copyright protection (text). This directive sets the duration of copyright to 70 years following the death of the author (for multiple authors, of the last author; for collective, pseudonymous or anonymous works, following the date of publication).

However, this directive does not shorten already running extended copyright terms in countries that apply them.

The 2001 EUCD, article, 5 specifies exceptions to copyright. However, only one of these exceptions is mandatory (it concerns caching). The others are optional, meaning that for each exception, each country is free to choose whether it adopts it and how it restricts it. Thus, one should not assume that one exception true in one EU country applies in another. Notably, each country is free to chose how to copyright objects permanently located in public places and "simple" photographs.

Finally, there is considerable amounts of case law or jurisprudence on these issues. In some cases, they may create rights or restrictions that do not appear in the text of the law. Thus, one should always be wary in how the law is interpreted in the country of interest, as opposed to merely reading the legal texts.

[edit] Country-specific laws

Laws about copyright differ from country to country. Images uploaded to Commons, unless uploaded from the United States, involve the interaction of two or more copyright jurisdictions. Generally, the policy applied on Commons is to only allow images that can be used in all (or at least most) countries. The laws of individual countries differ especially in the following points:

The safest way to apply international copyright law is to consider the laws of all the relevant jurisdictions and then use the most restrictive combination of laws to determine whether something is copyrighted or not. The jurisdictions that might need to be considered are:

A work is only allowed on Commons if it is either public domain in all relevant jurisdictions or if there is a free licence which applies to the work in all relevant jurisdictions.

In the case of a painting published in France please do apply US-American copyright laws as those copyright laws apply to the servers of Commons. Also apply the copyright laws of the country you are in and the copyright laws of any web server you got the work off. In the case of a French painting uploaded to Commons from a French web server by someone living in the UK three copyright jurisdictions would apply: France, UK and US. US law would mean that if the painting had not been published before 1923 it would be in copyright. British law would mean that if the painting was by an artist who had been dead for less than 70 years it would be in copyright. French law would mean that if the painting was by an artist who died for France it would be in copyright for even longer than under British law. In this case the most restrictive combination of jurisdictions would be French and US. Only if the painting was legally in the public domain in both France and the United States could it be uploaded from a French web server to Commons.

UNESCO has a collection of national copyright laws that should be referred to when creating country-specific tags such as those below.

Relevant country-specific differences in the duration of copyright (from 70 years pma) and exceptions of the application of copyright are discussed below (countries are listed in alphabetical order):

[edit] Afghanistan

It appears that Afghanistan has no copyright laws at all. See this information from WIPO, and also w:Afghanistan and copyright issues.

[edit] Albania

According to Copyright law of Albania the duration of copyright is 70 years post mortem auctoris. Copyright terminates 70 years after publication for pseudonymous or anonymous work. The following are not copyrightable and thus in public domain:

[edit] Algeria

Algerian law states that photos and films are protected for 50 years starting from the end of the publication year, after which they are in the public domain.

[edit] Andorra

The copyright law of Andorra states that the copyright term lasts for life extended for 70 years as from the first of January of the year following the death of the author. In a work of joint authorship, the term of 70 years shall be calculated from the death of the last surviving joint author. In a work of an author/s not identified individually (collective, anonymous or pseudonymous), the term is 70 years from the first time at the public disposal.

This is not applicable to any official text of legislative, administrative or judicial nature. However, the works of architecture are protected.

Andorra is party to the Berne Convention since Juny 2, 2004.

[edit] Arab States

Laws are found in both Arab Committee for Protecting Intellectual Property and Arab Law Group Organization

[edit] Armenia

According to the Copyright law of 1999 the duration of copyright is 50 years after the death of the author and 50 years after publication for anonymous work. Moral rights are perpetual.

The copyright in a work created on an employment assignment shall belong to the author of the work.

Armenia has freedom of panorama limited to de minimis use and non-commercial purposes.

Please check article 6. in Armenian; it is very unclear in English.

[edit] Argentina

See templates for details.

[edit] Australia

[edit] Government-produced works

According to [1], copyright of works with commonwealth, state, or territory-owned copyright expires 50 years from the date of creation (rounded up to the nearest year). Following that logic, all government-created works created before 1 January 1958 should be in the public domain.

[edit] Non-government works

Presently, the Australian Copyright Act 1968[2] should be consulted to determine whether the copyright of a work produced or published in Australia has expired. The Australian Copyright act 1968 was amended as of the 1st January 2005 and further amended February 2008, prior to this the time limit was 50 years the amendment was not retrospective, copyrights that expired prior to this date were not revived [3]

Following this logic:

Note:

[edit] Austria

[edit] Freedom of panorama

Objects permanently located in public that can be photographed from public (accessible) grounds, without devices such as a ladder, can be used by its photographer for any purpose, regardless of whether they display an artwork/building or not. This right is called Panoramafreiheit (freedom of panorama). However in some circumstances certain modifications (but not usage) of the image can be prohibited by the copyright owner of the object (artist or architect) if the copyright of that object has not expired. Generally an image taken in public space might not be used to produce an object similar to the original. (§54. (1) [9])

§54. (1) 5. : Werke der Baukunst nach einem ausgeführten Bau oder andere Werke der bildenden Künste nach Werkstücken, die dazu angefertigt wurden, sich bleibend an einem öffentlichen Ort zu befinden, zu vervielfältigen, zu verbreiten, durch optische Einrichtungen öffentlich vorzuführen und durch Rundfunk zu senden und der Öffentlichkeit zur Verfügung zu stellen; ausgenommen sind das Nachbauen von Werken der Baukunst, die Vervielfältigung eines Werkes der Malkunst oder der graphischen Künste zur bleibenden Anbringung an einem Orte der genannten Art sowie die Vervielfältigung von Werken der Plastik durch die Plastik.

[edit] Official works

By Austrian law, documents are in the public domain (gemeinfrei) if they have been published as part of a law or official decree or edict, or if they have been released as an official announcement or for public information. The relevant law is paragraph 7 of the UrhG.

[edit] Azerbaijan

According to the Copyright law of 1996 the duration of copyright is 50 years post mortem auctoris. The duration of copyright for anonymous work is 50 years after publication unless the author is identified. Post-humously work is protected 50 years after death if the work is published within 30 years after death.

According to article 8 copyright registration or explicit mention of copyright may be necessary. The English translation is not clear on this point.

The following are not subjects of copyright:

The reproduction, broadcasting or communication to the public by cable of architectural works, photographic works and works of fine art permanently located in a public place shall be permissible without the author's consent and without payment of remuneration, except where the presentation of the work constitutes the main feature of the said reproduction, broadcast or communication to the public by cable, if it is used for commercial purposes.

[edit] Belarus

The copyright law of Belarus states that the copyright term lasts for life, then extended for the next 50 years after the death of the author. In the case of more than one author, it will be 50 years p.m.a. after the death of the last author.

[edit] Belgium

According to the Copyright law of 1994 the duration of copyright is 70 years post mortem auctoris. For anonymous work the duration of copyright is 70 years after publication if the author is not identified.

[edit] Brazil

According to Brazilian Copyright law of 1998 (in Portuguese) translation:

Chapter III -The Economic Rights of the Authors and Term Thereof

Sole Paragraph. The provisions of Articles 41 and its sole paragraph shall be applicable where the author makes his identity known before the expiry of the period referred to in the introduction to this Article.

Chapter V - Term of Protection for Neighboring Rights

[edit] Freedom of panorama

[edit] Canada

All photographs taken before 1 January, 1949 are in the public domain.

For works from after that time, or non-photographs, the Copyright Act states a copyright subsists for the life of the author plus 50 years following the end of the calendar year of death (section 6). If the work is anonymous or pseudonymous then the copyright lasts either 50 years following publication or 75 years after the making of the work, whichever is earlier (section 6.1), provided the authorship does not become known in that timeframe.

See the Canadian Public Domain Flowchart to determine if a work is in the public domain.

[edit] China

[edit] People's Republic of China

According to the Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China [10] in effect in Mainland China:

According to the Chinese Civil Law Article 100 photos of regular people may not be published without their consent， if the person can be identified. The use of the image for profit (commercially) without his consent shall be prohibited.

[edit] Hong Kong

According to Chapter 528 Copyright Ordinance, in Section 17 Duration of copyright in literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, in the law of Hong Kong, a work's copyright expires 50 years after the last death of known authors, or the work's first publication for unknown authorship, or the year it made when the work is never made public and with unknown authorship. The above-mentioned ordinance does not apply to the work of Hong Kong Government, Legislative Council and certain international organizations. Their copyrights are under separate ordinances. [12]

[edit] Macau

According to the Copyright Law (Decree-Law n.o 43/99/M):

[edit] Republic of China

According to the Copyright Act of the Republic of China in effect in Taiwan Area: