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Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United States

US copyrights for works first published in US, excluding audio works Year of first publication
Note: publication is not creation Copyright duration Work has entered US public domain Copyrighted for 95 years after first publication pma: post mortem auctoris, or "after the author's death"

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of the United States relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons.

General rules

US copyright law applies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands, but does not apply in American Samoa. According to the US Copyright Office 17 U.S.C. § 101 (defining use of the term "United States" in the Copyright Act of 1976): "The 'United States', when used in a geographical sense, comprises the several States, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the organized territories under the jurisdiction of the United States Government."[3] Of the organized territories, the United States Copyright Office says that: "US federal copyright law applies in the US Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands but not in American Samoa."[4]

Full details of US Copyright Law (Title 17) are published by the US Copyright Office.[5]

Works by the US Government

A work by the US federal Government is in the public domain. This applies certainly within the United States; it may, however, not apply in other jurisdictions. See the CENDI Copyright FAQ list, 3.1.7, the US Government's own statement to that effect, but also this discussion.

Example of public domain work created by NASA, a US federal government agency

Edicts of Government

See also: Commons:Copyright tags

See also #US States and Territories

US Government agencies

Judicial Branch

Legislative Branch

Department of Agriculture

Department of Commerce

Department of Defense

Department of Education

Department of Energy

Department of Health and Human Services

Department of Homeland Security

Department of Housing and Urban Development

Department of the Interior

Department of Justice

Department of Labor

Department of State

Department of Transportation

Department of the Treasury

Department of Veterans Affairs

Independent agencies

US Library of Congress public domain collections

See also: Commons:Library of Congress

US States

US Territories

Work of Organized Territories has less clear status; the first link in this section shows strong evidence that Puerto Rico's works are in the public domain, while the second link prevaricates. Flags and coats of arms seem to follow the same laws as the US[8]

American Samoa

Miscellaneous

Currency

See also: Commons:Currency

Coins

OK for some but not all

Many but not all coins or bills produced by the United States Mint are in the public domain as works of the Federal Government. Some were designed by third parties who assigned rights to the Mint. These are typically commemorative coins for special occasions and the copyright is described in their marketing materials; another example is the obverse of the golden dollar.[4] The status of each coin or bill should be assessed individually. Please see Commons:Determining if U.S. coins are free to use for help in determining the copyright status of US coinage.

Banknotes

OK

"Color illustrations" of banknotes appear to be permitted if they respect the following conditions (from 18 US Code § 504 and 31 CFR § 411.1):

Please use {{PD-USGov-money}} for relevant US currency images.

See also: Category:United States currency-related deletion requests

De minimis

See also: Commons:De minimis

The United States courts interpret the de minimis defense in three distinct ways:

  1. Where a technical violation is so trivial that the law will not impose legal consequences;
  2. Where the extent of copying falls below the threshold of substantial similarity (always a required element of actionable copying); and
  3. In connection with fair use (not relevant here, since Commons does not allow fair use images).

It is the first of these that is often of particular concern on Commons.

As found in Ets-Hokin v. Skyy Spirits, Inc., a photograph of a bottle is not a derivative work of its label (though in this particular case, the label also happened to be below the threshold of originality):

“ We need not, however, decide whether the label is copyrightable because Ets-Hokin's product shots are based on the bottle as a whole, not on the label. The whole point of the shots was to capture the bottle in its entirety. The defendants have cited no case holding that a bottle of this nature may be copyrightable, and we are aware of none. Indeed, Skyy's position that photographs of everyday, functional, noncopyrightable objects are subject to analysis as derivative works would deprive both amateur and commercial photographers of their legitimate expectations of copyright protection. Because Ets-Hokin's product shots are shots of the bottle as a whole—a useful article not subject to copyright protection—and not shots merely, or even mainly, of its label, we hold that the bottle does not qualify as a "preexisting work " within the meaning of the Copyright Act. As such, the photos Ets-Hokin took of the bottle cannot be derivative works. ”

Freedom of panorama

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

OK for buildings only {{FoP-US}}

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 after December 1, 1990, even if begun before, or where the plans were published after that date.

However, the US federal copyright law explicitly exempts "pictures, paintings, photographs, or other pictorial representations" of copyrighted buildings from the copyright of the building in 17 USC 120(a). Anyone may paint, draw, or photograph buildings from public places. This includes such interior public spaces as lobbies, auditoriums, etc. The creator 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. 17 USC 120 applies only to architectural works, not to other works of visual art, such as statues or sculptures.

This means that for buildings completed before December 1, 1990, there is complete FoP, without regard to whether the building is visible from a public place, because the building is public domain, except for the plans. For photos of such buildings, the license tag {{PD-US-architecture}} can be used (along with a license tag for the photo.) For buildings completed after December 1, 1990, freedom is given only to photograph such a building. This includes style elements such as gargoyles and pillars, which are protected only from three-dimensional reproduction (Leicester v. Warner Bros.).

Note that copyright applies only to "buildings".

"The term building means structures that are habitable by humans and intended to be both permanent and stationary, such as houses and office buildings, and other permanent and stationary structures designed for human occupancy, including but not limited to churches, museums, gazebos, and garden pavilions."

All such works are copyrighted and, therefore, covered by the FOP exemption only if they are visible from a public place.

"Bridges, cloverleafs, dams, highways or walkways are not ‘buildings’ under the definition of architectural works."

In the US, such works do not have a copyright and therefore may be photographed freely, whether or not from a public place. For images of such works, {{PD-structure|USA}} can be used. They do have copyrights in many other countries.

Originality requirement for architecture

This discussion must be considered qualified by the requirement under US law that a work, including a derivative work, must display originality to be protectable under copyright law. See Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co. in the English Wikipedia. More specifically, in the case of derivative works, it has been held, in Durham Industries, Inc. v. Tomy Corp.[9] and earlier in L. Batlin & Son, Inc. v. Snyder.[10] that a derivative work must be original relative to the underlying work on which it is based. Otherwise, it cannot enjoy copyright protection and copying it will not infringe any copyright of the derivative work itself (although copying it may infringe the copyright, if any, of the underlying work on which the derivative work was based). For further discussion of this issue, see the Wikipedia article Derivative work.

For a legal discussion, see Wikilegal/Pictorial Representations Architectural Works.

Artworks and sculptures

 Not OK. {{NoFoP-US}} (category-only template)

Note: Please tag United States no-FoP for public art deletion requests: <noinclude>[[Category:United States FOP cases/pending]]</noinclude>

For artworks, even if permanently installed in public places, the US copyright law has no similar exception, and any publication of an image of a copyrighted artwork thus is subject to the approval of the copyright holder of the artwork. However, public artwork installed before 1930 is considered to be public domain, and can be photographed freely. In addition, any public artwork installed before 1978 without a copyright notice is also in the public domain (unless the copyright owner actively prevented anyone from copying or photographing the work until 1978). In these situations, document the date of installation and the creator (sculptor) of the pictured work as much as possible. (A good resource for finding information about US sculptures is the Smithsonian Art Inventories Catalog.)

Applicable templates:

The line of argument that a large sculpture or memorial is a building and therefore covered by the FOP exemption was specifically rejected in Federal claims court (Gaylord v. The United States, 2008), which noted that the building exemption to the Architectural Works Copyright Protection Act (AWCPA) does not extend to "The Column" sculpture in the Korean War Veterans Memorial because "[t]he structures used in the definition of 'building' by the Copyright Office are intended to house individuals; either for the sake of providing shelter or for another purpose such as religious services."[5] While the court ruled in favor of the defendant under a fair use rationale it was later overturned in favor of the plaintiff; the photograph was deemed a derivative work. The court also contended that had Congress intended to extend the AWCPA to monuments and memorials, the law would have been drafted to reflect that in the first place.

For further legal discussion, see Wikilegal/Copyright of Images of Memorials in the US.

Examples

Charging Bull

Cloud Gate

Graffiti by street artist Revok

Korean War Veterans Memorial

Portlandia

Statue of Liberty replica, New York-New York Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas

Three Servicemen or Three Soldiers

For further information, refer to Commons:Public art and copyrights in the US and the following resources:

See also: Category:United States FOP cases

For foreign works considered under US law:

Use {{Not-free-US-FOP}}.

Foreign works from countries that have a relevant freedom of panorama may fall under US law for copyright issues within the US. Under the choice-of-law principle lex loci protectionis, US courts might apply US freedom of panorama standards in such cases, rather than the standards of the source country. However, in practice, it is unsettled whether and how this approach would be applied in real-world US legal cases involving freedom of panorama elements.

See {{Not-free-US-FOP}} and Commons:Requests for comment/Non-US Freedom of Panorama under US copyright law.

Algorithmic and AI-created works

In the United States, copyright can only be assigned to "works independently created by a human author"[6]. The copyright office has denied copyright registration to creative works "created by artificial intelligence without any creative contribution from a human actor"[7] and states that "The U.S. Copyright Office will refuse to register a claim in a work that is created through the operation of a machine or process without sufficient human interaction, even if the design is randomly generated" [8].

Stamps

See also: Commons:Stamps

According to Title 17 of the United States Code, the copyright status of stamps depends on when they were first issued.

Before 1978
In the public domain as a work of the federal government. Use {{PD-USGov}}
1978 onward
Copyrighted by the United States Postal Service after 1 January 1978 (the date on which the Copyright Act of 1976 went into effect).[11] Written permission is needed.[12]

Threshold of originality

These images are OK to upload to Commons, because they are below the threshold of originality required for copyright protection.

Despite repeated requests, the US Copyright Office found the Vodafone speechmark (shaded version) ineligible for copyright protection. It cannot, however, be uploaded to Commons because it's a UK logo. Additionally, the US Copyright Office does not consider text effects to be sufficiently unique to render a logo copyrightable, stating that "the mere use of text effects (including chalk, popup papercraft, neon, beer glass, spooky-fog, and weathered-and-worn), while potentially separable, is de minimis and not sufficient to support a registration".

These are  Not OK to upload to Commons (unless published under a free license by the copyright holder), because they are above the threshold of originality required for copyright protection.

Paintings

 Not OK for most paintings.

Even seemingly simple paintings consisting of geometric shapes are often copyrighted due to details that may not be immediately obvious to the viewer.

Words and short phrases

Below TOO:

Other

Although the threshold of originality for non-graphic works (such as architecture and sound recordings) follow the same standards, such cases can be difficult to determine.

Signatures

OK for a typical signature. In Copyright circular Number 1 the US Copyright Office sets out a list of things on which copyright protection cannot be granted, including "Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs; and mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or coloring."

The US Copyright Compendium, chapter 503.02(2) states that copyright will be denied to a character of Chinese calligraphy painted upon horizontally striated grass cloth. It states that "like typography, calligraphy is not copyrightable as such, notwithstanding the effect achieved by calligraphic brush strokes across a striated surface". Thus, it appears that calligraphy cannot be protected and, by analogy, signatures.

In Commons talk:Licensing/Archive 11#Autographs.2Fsignatures, there is a reference to User:BrokenSphere having sent an email to the US Copyright Office, and receiving the reply "A signature is not protected by copyright".

If the signature is sufficiently complex to be considered a protectable artistic work in the US (akin to a non-trivial drawing), it cannot be hosted on Commons regardless of the position under local law unless it has been licensed under a compatible license or would have fallen into the public domain under some other rule (e.g. expiration of copyright).

Copyright formalities

Works published in the United States before certain dates require an increasingly stringent level of compliance with copyright formalities in order to remain copyrighted; otherwise, they fall into the public domain. This section attempts to describe these cases in detail.

Not renewed (before 1964)

In order to conclude that a work is {{PD-US-not-renewed}}, a thorough search of the copyright registry must be performed.

If a work is based on a previously published work which has been renewed, failure to renew copyright in the derivative work would only cause the additional expression present in the derivative work to fall into the public domain, so the derivative work as a whole remains copyrighted. An example is It's a Wonderful Life#Ownership and copyright issues, where the film's copyright failed to be renewed due to a clerical error, but as it was based on a short story called The Greatest Gift which was properly renewed, the film remains copyrighted. For this specific case, it is generally acceptable to upload individual screenshots of the film since their reliance on the story is minimal, but not video of the film.

No notice (before 1978)

In order to conclude that a work is {{PD-US-no notice}}, care must be exercised to ensure that the work truly has no copyright notice. In general, finding an image of a two-dimensional work (which would fall under {{PD-scan}} if the original work is public domain) on the Internet with no notice does not prove that it has no notice, as there could be a notice on the original hard copy, such as on a part of the page cropped out of the scan, on the back side of the page, or on a different page if the work came from a book/pamphlet. For memorabilia such as postcards, auction sites such as eBay can be a good resource to find images of the full item on both sides. For public art installed prior to 1978, the mere act of placing it in public view where people can make copies constitutes publication. For a photo of public art, a combination of the photo itself, other photos on the Internet (which need not be freely licensed, so long as there is no reason to doubt their authenticity), and mapping services like Google Street View can be used to establish the lack of a copyright notice. The Smithsonian Art Catalog is a useful resource for finding information about artworks. See Commons:Public art and copyrights in the US for more details.

The situation can become extremely complicated if a work is distributed via multiple authorized channels, only some of which carry a notice. According to the Copyright Act of 1909, "Where the copyright proprietor has sought to comply with the provisions of this title with respect to notice, the omission by accident or mistake of the prescribed notice from a particular copy or copies shall not invalidate the copyright or prevent recovery for infringement against any person who, after actual notice of the copyright, begins an undertaking to infringe it, but shall prevent the recovery of damages against an innocent infringer who has been misled by the omission of the notice; and in a suit for infringement no permanent injunction shall be had unless the copyright proprietor shall reimburse to the innocent infringer his reasonable outlay innocently incurred if the court, in its discretion, shall so direct."[16] The 1973 Copyright Compendium explains in greater detail:[17]

  1. If the Office is informed that the great bulk at the published copies of a work bore an appropriate notice, but that the notice was accidentally omitted from a very few of the published copies, registration may be made. In such cases, if the deposit copies do not bear the notice, copies with the notice will be requested.
  2. If a considerable number of copies have been pub­lished without notice, registration will be denied.
  3. If the entire first edition of a work was published without notice, registration will be denied even if the first edition consisted of a relatively small number of copies.

As in the renewal case, failure to include a notice on a derivative work does not invalidate the copyright on the original work,[18] so in such a case neither the original nor the derivative can be uploaded to Commons. However, a fully original portion of the derivative work (if possible to isolate, which is not always the case) would be acceptable.

If there is a notice but it fails to comply with certain constraints, it may fall under {{PD-US-defective notice}}. The most basic requirements are given in the text of the copyright tag, but for more details see the 1973 Copyright Compendium.[19]

No notice and unregistered (before March 1989)

In order to conclude that a work is {{PD-US-1978-89}}, the requirements of the previous section must be met, and a thorough search of the copyright registry over the next five years must be performed.

Regarding the specific definition of "no notice", the 1984 Copyright Compendium is similar to the 1973 edition:[20]

Omission of copyright notice. Where the notice is omitted from more than a relatively small number of copies or phonorecords distributed by authority of the copyright owner, and registration is being made within five years of the date of publication without notice, the Copyright Office may warn that the law requires, in addition to registration, that a reasonable effort must be made to add the notice to all copies or phonorecords that are distributed to the public in the United States after the omission has been discovered. See 17 U.S.C. 405(a).

Registration. Registration is not possible for works published without notice or with a fatally deficient notice by authority of the copyright owner, if more than five years have elapsed since such publication. There are, however two exceptions to this general rule: 1) where the notice has been omitted from no more than a relatively small number of copies or phonorecords distributed to the public; or 2) where the notice has been omitted in vio­lation of an express requirement in writing that, as a condition of the copyright owner's authorization of the public distribution of copies or phonorecords, they contain the prescribed copyright notice. In these two instances, there is no need for registration to correct the omission. Registration in these cases may be made at any time during the subsistence of the copyright. See 17 U.S.C. 405(a).

If there is a notice but it fails to comply with certain constraints, it may fall under {{PD-US-defective notice-1978-89}}. The basic requirements are given in the text of the copyright tag.

See also

Citations

  1. Circular 1: Copyright Basics. US Copyright Office. Retrieved on 2019-03-14.
  2. Hirtle, Peter (2018-11-06). Copyright Term and the Public Domain in the United States. Retrieved on 2018-12-10.
  3. Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17) Chapter 1 Subject Matter and Scope of Copyright 101 Definitions. US Copyright Office. Retrieved on 2019-03-14.
  4. Circular 38a: International Copyright Relations of the United States 14. US Copyright Office. Retrieved on 2019-03-14.
  5. Copyright Law of the United States ( (Title 17)). US Copyright Office. Retrieved on 2019-03-14.
  6. Compendium II: Copyright Office Practices, § 1102.08(b)
  7. W:Compendium II: Copyright Office Practices, § 206.02(e)
  8. Ley Núm. 70 de 2006 -Ley para disponer la oficialidad de la bandera y el escudo de los setenta y ocho (78) municipios. (in es). LexJuris (Leyes y Jurisprudencia) de Puerto Rico. Retrieved on 24 September 2020.
  9. 630 F.2d 905 (2d Cir, 1980), available at http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/551553 and http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F2/630/905/238194/
  10. 536 F.2d 486 (2d Cir.) (en banc), available at http://www.altlaw.org/v1/cases/554959 and http://www.coolcopyright.com/cases/fulltext/batlinsnydertext.htm
  11. http://about.usps.com/corporate-social-responsibility/stamp-collecting.htm#asc8
  12. http://about.usps.com/doing-business/rights-permissions/welcome.htm USPS site
  13. Omega S.A., v. Costco Wholesale Corp., 541 F.3d 982, 983.
  14. Fishman, Stephen (2014) The Public Domain: How to Find & Use Copyright-Free Writings, Music, Art & More, Nolo, p. 183 Retrieved on 29 August 2014. ISBN: 1413320287.
  15. Re: Second Request for Reconsideration for Refusal to Register Intel Spiral, January 23, 2017
  16. 17 U.S.C. § 21 (1947).
  17. Copyright Compendium I (1973), 4-5 to 4-6.
  18. 17 U.S.C. § 7 (1947)
  19. Copyright Compendium I (1973), 4-8 to 4-45.
  20. Copyright Compendium II (1984), 1000-13.

External links

Caution: The above description may be inaccurate, incomplete and/or out of date, so must be treated with caution. Before you upload a file to Wikimedia Commons you should ensure it may be used freely.

See also: Commons:General disclaimer

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