User:Piotrus/PolishCopyright

A quick guide to what copyright templates to use, and the copyright status of Polish works, with the focus on what is public domain both in the USA and in Poland (in rare cases an image may be in the public domain in only one of those two jurisdictions, and if this is the case, it cannot be hosted in Commons).

What copyright templates to use

Note: A Poland-related image needs two public domain templates: one to explain its copyright status in Poland, the other one in United States. See Commons:Copyright_tags#Non-U.S._works

First, please understand this VERY IMPORTANT EXCEPTION which actually allows a lot of pre-1994 Polish works to be in public domain!

• photographs published before 1994 by Polish photographers (or published for the first time in Poland or simultaneously in Poland and abroad), without a clear copyright notice: {{PD-Polish}}

Now, if the above is not met, this is the flow chart for what is in PD:

• is the author known and they died before 1950? If yes the work is in PD and you can use the following template:
  • works by Polish artists who died before 1950 published in Poland before 1925: 1) for Poland: {{PD-old-70}} or {{PD-Art|1=PD-old-70}} (for photos of 2d art) and 2) for US: {{PD-US-expired}}
    • works by Polish artists who died before 1950 published in Poland before 1946: 1) for Poland: {{PD-old-70}} or {{PD-Art|1=PD-old-70}} (for photos of 2d art) and 2) for US: {{PD-1996}} or {{PD-Art|PD-old-auto-1996|country=Poland|date=1996|reason=|deathyear=}}
  • works by Polish artists who died before 1950 published in Poland after 1947 but before 1950 1) for Poland: {{PD-old-70}} or {{PD-Art|1=PD-old-70}} (for photos of 2d art) and 2) for US: not in public domain because URAA (see #What is not PD in Wikimedia Commons).

• is the author unknown but the work was published before 1950?
  • works by presumably Polish anonymous authors published in Poland before 1950: 1) for Poland: {{PD-anon-70-EU}} and 2) for US: {{PD-1996}}, plus {{PD-Art|1=PD-old-auto-1996|country=Poland|date=}} (for photos of 2d art), with date parameter being the date the work was published.

• other rare cases:
  • works by presumably non-Polish artists first published in Poland: according to Berne Convention Berne Convention, §5 the law, which shall apply in the case is the law of the country of the first publication, so Polish law applies.
    • Interesting side-note on WWII era. It is debatable whether Germans had the right to impose their legal regime on the occupied territories. The applicability of Nazi German law is a topic still debated by scholars and lawyers (ex. Lavis, Simon (2015) The conundrum of Nazi law: an historiographical challenge to the Anglo-American jurisprudential representation of the Nazi past), and in general it is a major headache given international violations that abounded during that era. But territory trumps nationality (hence the freedom of panorama: it doesn't matter if I am a citizen of a country with freedom of panorama if I go to a country with no FoP, no-FoP law applies). Of course, then there is the issue of the 1945 border change to consider. Bottom line - pictures that have taken by German photographers in occupied Poland can be reasonably argued to fall under Polish, not German, copyright law if they were first published in Polish media. And since the Polish state claimed sovereignty over occupied territories, this likely applies to items published in the occupied territories such as posters.
  • works by Polish artists first published outside Poland: use the law of that country.
  • From Berne Convention: "in the case of works published simultaneously in several countries of the Union which grant different terms of protection, the country whose legislation grants the shortest term of protection [prevails];"
  • works whose economic rights have been owned not by the author but by another party (i.e. works for hire): treat like published by a person, see paragraph on works for hire below for rationale. Yes, the wording on some templates refers to the author and maybe it should say author or copyright holder, but the wording doesn't change the fact of being in PD or not.
  • official documents, materials, signs, and symbols (published as acts, laws, their parts and similar) : {{PD-Polishsymbol}} (note: unlike in the USA, not every work of the official administrative institutions and other governmental agencies is PD).

What is not PD in Wikimedia Commons

Any works by Polish artists who died after 1950, as they are not covered by {{PD-old-70}}/{{PD-art}}, subject to exceptions due to specifics of Polish Copyright Law in particular {{PD-Polish}} (for some pre-1994 photographs) and {{PD-Polishsymbol}} (for government symbols).

1946 and later works were restored in the U.S. by the URAA, and (if published 1923 or later) will have a term of 95 years from publication regardless of when the author died. (It's only works published in 1978 or later which have a U.S. term based on the author's life dates, which is rarely relevant). So, 1946-and-later works are protected for 70 years in Poland and 95 years in the United States (see this discussion).

Works that were not published are a major pain, see Commons:Publication. If the work has never been published until recently, the copyright status of it is unclear and it may be deleted. I will try to update this as I figure it better. See for example Template:PD-US-unpublished for US works of such type, which effectively means they are protected for 120 years if the author is unknown. See also Template:PD-EU-unpublished.

Rationale and disclaimer

I am not a lawyer, but all active members of this project get a decent education in this over the years :)

Anyway, this is how I arrived at the conclusions, feel free to replicate it and tell me if I am wrong somewhere. First, look at Commons:Hirtle_chart, section "Works First Published Outside the U.S. by Foreign Nationals or U.S. Citizens Living Abroad. On Commons these cases also need to be free according to copyright terms in the country of publication." (The latter is covered by {{Anonymous-EU}} for up to 1941). The next step is "1923 through 1977: Published without compliance with US formalities, and in the public domain in its source country as of URAA date; 1 January 1996 for most countries." This sends us to w:Wikipedia:Non-U.S._copyrights#endnote_tab_poland, which states "Poland extended its copyright term to 50 years p.m.a. on May 23, 1994, and then to 70 years on January 1, 2003. This means that on the URAA date of January 1, 1996, the shorter term of 50 years was still valid", which is how you get the 1946 date. The following sentence "However, some of these works then became re-copyrighted in 2003 within Poland (and later the European Union" explains why the works from 1943-1950 were now copyrighted in Poland/EU (hence, {{Anonymous-EU}} comes into play again).

For works for hire, where it is not the author but another party that owns the copyright, the duration is 70 years from works publication or creation, see Polish Copyright Law Art. 36 exception 3 ("if, under this Act, a person other than the author owns the author's economic rights -from the date of the dissemination of the work; and if the work has not been disseminated -from the date of the establishment thereof"). Also, from w:Work_for_hire#Copyright_duration: "In the European Union... the duration of protection is, in general, the same as the copyright term for personal copyright: i.e., for a literary or artistic work, 70 years from the death of the human author, or in the case of works of joint authorship, 70 years from the death of the last surviving author. If the natural author or authors are not identified, nor become known subsequently, then the copyright term is the same as that for an anonymous or pseudonymous work, i.e. 70 years from publication for a literary or artistic work; or, if the work has not been published in that time, 70 years from creation. (Article 1, Directive harmonizing the term of copyright protection, Directive 93/98/EC.</ref> (Copyright durations for works created before 1993 may be subject to transitional arrangements)."

Freedom of panorama

Poland has freedom of panorama subject to minor exceptions ({{FoP-Poland}}).

Conclusion

The majority of works by Polish authors who died before 1950 are in the public domain in EU/US, thus we can say that "almost all works by Polish authors who died before 1950, and all anonymous work published in Poland before 1950, is in the public domain". Following exceptions apply:

1. ) it's possible for works for Polish authors who died before 1950 to still be copyrighted if the works were published posthumously 1950 or later (see Polish Copyright Law, Art 36., exception 2: "if the author of a work is unknown -from the date of the first dissemination of the work").
2. ) Also, for some individuals who died during World War II, but whose exact date of death is not known, Polish law set the date 9 May 1950 as their legal date of death; thus for example works of Janusz Korczak who died in August 1942 (exact date of death unknown) were copyrighted till 2017 (1 January of the first year after legal date of death, +70 years), through that was particular case was recently overruled. Either way, this becomes moot by 2017.
3. ) It is *possible* that Polish works did conform to all U.S. formalities (copyright notice and copyright renewal 28 years after publication), and thus didn't need URAA restoration since their copyright was never lost, but that is very rare outside of books.

Finally, note that a lot of images rely on Template:PD-Polish. This can occasionally be overturned when a copyright notice can be found. See case study at Commons:Deletion requests/File:Okragly Stol 1989.jpg (2nd discussion).

In case the rights are inherited: {{PD-heirs}}

See also

Some relevant templates for specific cases that you may want to know about: {{PolishSenateCopyright}}, {{PolishPresidentCopyright}}, Category:Templates related to Poland (should contain all copyright templates related to Poland; also Category:License tags of Poland), Commons:Copyright_rules_by_territory/Consolidated_list_O-R#Poland, Commons:Freedom_of_panorama#Poland, Category:Polish FOP cases, ({{FoP-Poland}})

Read more official guide at Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Poland

Outstanding issues: please see the talk page.