User:Zhaladshar/Copyright

The information on this page was created and organized by Quadell to help determine if a work is protected by copyright in the United States, or is in the public domain. Since Wikipedia's main servers are located in the U.S., this can be used to determine whether the work can be tagged PD or not. All information is correct to the best I can determine; however, nothing on this page should be construed as legal advice, and I cannot be liable for any damages if this information is inadvertantly incorrect.

Uncopyrightable works
1. If a work contains no new creative content whatsoever, it is not copyrightable. (See PD-ineligible.)

2. If a work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Federal Government, or of the State Government of California, as part of that person's official duties, then it is not copyrightable and is thus in the public domain. Other countries governments may have similar policies. (See PD-USGov.)


 * List of governments whose works are uncopyrightable:
 * United States Federal Government
 * State Government of California
 * Polish government

3. If the author of a work has declared the work to be placed in the public domain, then the work can be used as if it were in the public domain. (See PD-release.)

Unpublished works
4. If the work has NEVER been published before in any form, it is considered an "unpublished work". Alternatively, if a work was FIRST published in 2003 or later, even though it was created before 1935, it is still legally considered an "unpublished work".

5. If an "unpublished work" is by a known author with a known year of death, then the work is in the public domain if the author died before 1935.

6. If an "unpublished work" is by an anonymous or corporate author, or if the year of death for the author is not known, then the work is in the public domain if the work was created before 1885.

Published works
7. If a work was first published before 1923, it's in the public domain no matter what. (See PD-1923.)

Published works in the United States
8. If a work was first published in the U.S. between 1923 and 1977, and it was published without a copyright notice, it's in the public domain.

9. If a work was first published in the U.S. between 1923 and 1963 WITH a copyright notice, then it's in the public domain ONLY IF the copyright was not renewed. (This is difficult to determine.)

10. If a work was first published in the U.S. between 1978 and March 1, 1989, and it was published without a copyright notice, then it's in the public domain only if the author failed to subsequently register that copyright. (This is difficult to determine.)

Published works outside the United States
11. If a work was first published outside the U.S. between 1923 and 1977, and the work was not protected by copyright in its home country as of January 1, 1996, then it is in the public domain. This must be determined on a country-by-country basis.

A country-by-country analysis
For the following analysis, the phrase No treaty indicates that the U.S. does not have a copyright treaty with this country, so works created by residents of this country are not protected by copyright in the U.S. The phrase Life+X means that the work is in the public domain if the author died more than X years before the end of the current year. The phrase Treaty:Life+X means that according to a treaty the country has signed, it has agreed to extend its copyright protection to Life+X, but it has not yet done so.

Keep in mind that any work first published before 1923 is considered in the public domain in the U.S., regardless of the work's copyright status in its country of origin. Also, note that other countries may change their copyright laws at any time, and these laws may be retroactive to works previously in the public domain.