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Copyright exists to promote the production of creative works. Striking the right balance between protections for copyright holders and a healthy public domain is key to creating a culturally rich society.
The international copyright system as established by the Berne Convention, under which the minimum length of copyright is the lifetime of the author plus 50 years, tilts the balance too far in favor of copyright holders of already existing works to the detriment of the public domain.
That being said, we must strive to eliminate all copyright infringement, no matter how minor, from Wikimedia Commons. A free repository of media ceases to become valuable when its stores are tainted with non-free works.
Wikimedia Commons should be a home to all free media: this is the policy of inclusionism. While we should be vigilant about removing copyright violations and illegal media, nothing should be "out of scope" of the project.
Copyleft licenses are a copywrong. To restrictively require that all future derivatives of a work be licensed in a particular fashion is ultimately detrimental to the goal of creating a rich body of freely usable works.
Less is more. The best license is no license at all. Let's put the "PD" back in Wiki-PD-a!
Under 17 U.S. Code § 105(a), works of the United States government are generally in the public domain; a work of the United States government is defined by 17 U.S. Code § 101 as "a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties".
Under [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/105 17 U.S. Code § 105(a)], works of the United States government are generally in the public domain; a work of the United States government is defined by [https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/101 17 U.S. Code § 101] as "a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties".
17 U.S. Code § 105(a) provides that "the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise". That is, works created for the U.S. government by contractors are not necessarily in the public domain.
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/105 17 U.S. Code § 105(a)] provides that "the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise". That is, works created for the U.S. government by contractors are not necessarily in the public domain.
Each of the nominated coin designs was created by an Artistic Infusion Program contractor. For reasons explained at [[Commons:Determining if U.S. coins are free to use#Coins designed by Artistic Infusion Program contractors are not freely usable|Commons:Determining if U.S. coins are free to use]], coins designed by Artistic Infusion Program contractors are not freely usable and are therefore ineligible to be hosted on Commons. Please see [[User:Mysterymanblue/U.S. Coins with known copyright statuses]] for more information on how this determination was made.
Per Commons:Hirtle chart#Sound recordings, essentially all sound recordings published 1923–1971 are still copyrighted. For works published during this period, failure to include a copyright notice or to renew the copyright did not cause the copyright to expire. This work is almost certainly a copyright violation.
Per [[Commons:Hirtle chart#Sound recordings]], essentially all sound recordings published 1923–1971 are still copyrighted. For works published during this period, failure to include a copyright notice or to renew the copyright did not cause the copyright to expire. This work is almost certainly a copyright violation.
The metadata of this photograph indicate that it was taken by Burwell and Burwell Photography, a private contractor used by the mint to take some of its coin photographs. These files are protected by copyright and are non-free per Commons:Deletion requests/Burwell and Burwell photographs of U.S. coins.
The metadata of this photograph indicate that it was taken by Burwell and Burwell Photography, a private contractor used by the mint to take some of its coin photographs. These files are protected by copyright and are non-free as established by [[Commons:Deletion requests/Burwell and Burwell photographs of U.S. coins]].
Disclaimer
I am often involved in discussions relating to licensing or copyright law on Wikimedia Commons. I am not a lawyer, and the information I provide is not legal advice.
Public domain dedication
I hereby release all of my text contributions to Wikimedia Commons, including all of my unstructured text contributions, into the public domain under the terms of the Creative Commons Zero 1.0 public domain dedication.
Committed identity: d009950a765f7117ca87fadaea6353834ed3f0dc9235472bbd50050e0c20a789752933213b54b02277ef8037d60c2e3806cc1bfd106f7545fd4c7eef1f3b9671 is a SHA-512commitment to this user's real-life identity.
