User:Lupo/Notes

Soviet Copyrights

Due to the territorial nature of laws, I think (and Soufron has even hinted at that, too, in my e-mail conversation with him) that we can apply Russian law only with Russia. But some former Soviet works might today be considered not Russian works but works of some other CIS country, or even a work of one of the three Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia, and Estnia.

The Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991.

CIS states accepted international treaties concluded by the Soviets and thus became UCC members with a retroactive adherance date of May 27, 1973. The three Baltic states did not do so, and thus did not become UCC members.

Cases: (country X is one of the successor countries on the territory of the USSR, including the Baltic states) These are first thoughts only, and the table may be incorrect. No warranties given or implied :-) Comments welcome.

The following tables all concern works published in the Soviet Union. For works first published later, the place of first publication determines the applicable law for determination whether a work is out of copyright.

Corporate copyright ownership

Original copyright owner (and publisher)	Successor (copyright passed to...)	Applicable law
Soviet government	Russian government	Russia (presumably), or maybe "simultaneous publication"?
Soviet state enterprise or other state legal entity	Privatized enterprise or legal entity in country X	Country X
Soviet state enterprise or other state legal entity	State enterprise or other state legal entity of country X	Country X
Soviet state enterprise or other state legal entity that ceased to exist before the USSR was dissolved	State? Needs checking	Russia?, or "simultaneous publication"?

Private copyright ownership

Original copyright owner	Successor (copyright passed to...)	Originally published by	Applicable law
Soviet citizen, still living	Same person, today a citizen of country X	Publishing house that today is based in country X or some other country Y	Country X or Y (coyprighted anyway, since author still living)
Soviet citizen, death immaterial	Soviet state forcibly acquired the copyright through compulsory purchase (see 1961 Fundamentals, Section IV: Copyright, Article 106, or 1964 Fundamentals, Section IV: Copyright, Article 501)	Publishing house that today is based in country X	"Simultaneous publication" (or alternatively Russia, as for governmental works?), or country X?
Soviet citizen, died before 1991, no heirs	None? Soviet state? Licensee?	Publishing house that today is based in country X	"Simultaneous publication" (or alternatively Russia as the largest successor state?), or country X
Soviet citizen, died before 1991, has heirs	Heirs who are citizens of country X	Publishing house that today is based in country X	Country X
Soviet citizen, died before 1991, has heirs	Heirs who are citizens of country X	Publishing house that today is based in country Y	Country Y (or country X?)
Soviet citizen, died after 1991, with or without heirs	Same person, became citizen of some country X	Publishing house that today is based in country X or some other country Y	Unclear whether X or Y or "simultaneously published", but in any case copyrighted due to recent death

Basically all the copyright laws of the successor states of the USSR (including the Baltic states) exempt about the same kinds of works from copyright, in particular official signs and symbols and folklore works. Needs to be checked.

If the law of country X applies, need to check implementation acts that governed transition from old Soviet law (25y term) to modern law. If retroactive (e.g., Russia or Georgia), older laws are mostly irrelevant for determining whether a work is still copyrighted (although such older laws are still important to determine copyright ownership, but that's a question of no concern to us when trying to figure out whether a work was in the public domain). If not retroactive, expiration of old and short Soviet terms may give rise to interesting (i.e., relatively recent) cut-off dates unless "simultaneous publication" bites, in which case we can't under any circumstances get more recent dates than those for Russia, and maybe even have to go with 70y p.m.a. from the Georgian retroactive law (if that law, passed in 1999, has an effect on CIS nations who joined the Berne Convention earlier, which may be doubtful).

Country of origin

Berne Convention: §5(4) defines country of origin the country where a work is first published, irrespective of the nationality of the author. Only if the work was first published in a non-Berne country without simultaneous publication in a Berne country, the country of origin is given by the author's nationality. The USSR was not a Berne country.

[17 USC 104A(b)] says that the restored copyright vests in the original copyright holder as determined by the laws of the source country.

[17 USC 104A(h)(8)] defines "source country" to be the country where the work was first published, or, if published simultaneously in several countries, the one with "the most significant contacts with the work". For unpublished works, the nationality of (the majority of) the author(s) defines the source country. If that majority are U.S. citizens, the "source country" is that foreign country with "the most significant contacts with the work".

The U.S. rules are a bit unclear because "most significant contacts" is subjective and may be interpreted this or that way by a court. The U.S. uses "country of first publication", whereas the Berne Convention uses "nationality of author" (in the case of Soviet works).

If we assume that we start from the current states' (which are Berne countries) laws, Berne agrees with the U.S. 104A rule and also defines "country of origin" by first publication.

I think, we should indeed use "first publication" as our criterion.

Soviet copyrights, 2nd attempt

Corporate copyright ownership

Original copyright owner (and publisher)	Successor (copyright passed to...)	Applicable law
Soviet government	Russian government	use PD-Russia
Soviet state enterprise or other state legal entity	Privatized enterprise or legal entity in country X	Country X
Soviet state enterprise or other state legal entity	State enterprise or other state legal entity of country X	Country X
Soviet state enterprise or other state legal entity that ceased to exist before the USSR was dissolved	State? Needs checking	use PD-Russia

Private copyright ownership

Original copyright owner	Successor (copyright passed to...)	Originally published by a publishing house at a place that today is in...	Applicable law
Soviet citizen, still living	Same person, today a citizen of country X	in country Y (Y may be different from or equal to X)	Country Y (coyprighted anyway, since author still living)
Soviet citizen, death immaterial	Soviet state forcibly acquired the copyright through compulsory purchase (see 1961 Fundamentals, Section IV: Copyright, Article 106, or 1964 Fundamentals, Section IV: Copyright, Article 501)	in country X	Country X (or PD-Russia; see below)
Soviet citizen, died before 1991, no heirs	None? Soviet state? Licensee?	in country X	Country X
Soviet citizen, died before 1991, has heirs	Heirs who are citizens of country X	in country Y (Y may be different from or equal to X)	Country Y
Soviet citizen, died after 1991, with or without heirs	Same person, became citizen of some country X	in country Y (Y may be different from or equal to X)	Country Y, but in any case copyrighted due to recent death

Looks better, doesn't it? There's only one uncertainty left (compulsory purchase by the state). I propose that we resolve this by applying country X's laws, too.

If the place of publication is unknown, but the publisher is known and is today based in country X, go by that country. If the publisher ceased to exist in Soviet times, go by the author's post-Soviet nationality. If the author died in Soviet times or emigrated to become a citizen of a totally unrelated country, or is unknown, apply PD-Russia.

Countries

Country	Joined Berne [1]	URAA date	Laws
Armenia	October 19, 2000	October 19, 2000	[2]
Azerbaijan	June 4, 1999	June 4, 1999	[3]
Belarus	December 12, 1997	December 12, 1997	[4]
Estonia	October 26, 1994	January 1, 1996	[5]
Georgia	May 16, 1995	January 1, 1996	[6]
Kazakhstan	April 12, 1999	April 12, 1999	[7]
Kyrgyzstan	July 8, 1999	July 8, 1999	[8]
Latvia	August 11, 1995	January 1, 1996	[9]
Lithuania	December 14, 1994	January 1, 1996	Current law of 2003. Changes from 1999 version concern audiovisual works, broadcasters' rights, etc. Copyright law of 1999 (effective Sept. 1, 1999) Copyright law of 1994, effective Aug. 1, 1994
Moldova	November 2, 1995	January 1, 1996	[10]
Russia	March 13, 1995	January 1, 1996	Current law of 2004 Term extension from 50 to 70 years in 2004 Decision/Interpretation of the 1993/2004 copyright law by the Russian Supreme Court from June 19, 2006, confirming the retroactivity of the 1993 law (§34). In Russian. Copyright law of 1993, No. 5351-1 Implementation Act for the law of 1993, No. 5352-1 (in Russian)
Tajikistan	March 9, 2000	March 9, 2000	[11]
Turkmenistan	None	None	[12]
Ukraine	October 25, 1995	January 1, 1996	[13]
Uzbekistan	April 19, 2005	April 19, 2005	[14]

Old Soviet laws (chapter 4 of the Civil Code):

1991 Fundamentals: 50 years p.m.a. Accepted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on May 31, 1991. Did not enter in force in the USSR. Entered in force for a short time in Russia (from August 3 1992 until the 1993 Copyright Law became effective).
Copyright Act of the RSFSR of 1964; edition from 1974 (after the accession to the UCC): 25 years p.m.a.
1961 Fundamentals

Interesting overviews:

Janice T. Pilch's overview articles in SEEIR 4(1), 5(1), and 6(1).
Janice T. Pilch: Fair Use and Beyond: The Status of Copyright Limitations and Exceptions in the Commonwealth of Independent States, College and Research Libraries 65(6), Nov. 2004; pp. 468 – 504.

Books:
- Levitsky, S. : Introduction to Soviet Copyright Law, Law in Eastern Europe No. 8, Sythoff, Leyden; 1964. No ISBN.
- Newcity, M.: Copyright Law in the Soviet Union, Praeger Publishers, New York, London; 1978. ISBN 0-275-56450-9.
- Elst, M.: Copyright, Freedom of Speech, and Cultural Policy in the Russian Federation, Martinus Nijhoff, Leiden/Boston, 2005; ISBN 9-004-14087-5.

Armenia

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Estonia

Georgia

Kazakhstan

Kyrgyzstan

Latvia

Lithuania

See this discussion (still needs refinement).

Moldova

Russia

I'm not going to re-iterate all this. See Template talk:PD-USSR, commons:Template talk:PD-Soviet, and also commons:Commons:Deletion requests/Template:PD-Soviet.

Rules if brief:

within Russia, PD if published before 1954 and author, if known, died before 1954. 1950 for authors who are or were veterans of WWII. Corporate ownership: PD if published before 1954.
in the U.S.: Same, with 1946 (1942 for WWII veterans) as the year.
in the EU: as in Russia, due to the rule of the shorter term (§7 of directive 93/98/EEC), i.e. 1954 (1950) as the date. Corporate ownership: unclear, as several (all?) EU countries do not know that concept. If they'd consider the true author of a work the copyright owner (lex loci delicti, i.e. according to their own laws), only works of authors who died before 1954 (1950) would be PD. If they'd honor corporate copyright ownership (lex originis), as in Russia.

Template: PD-Russia.

The following are explicitly exempt from copyright (Russian copyright law, §8):

official documents (laws, judicial decisions, other legislative, administrative and judicial texts), and their official translations;
state symbols and marks (flags, emblems, orders, banknotes and other state symbols and marks);
works of folk art (folklore);
information reports of events and facts.

Point 2 arguably includes postage stamps. On point 3: the law does not define "folk art". Point 4 refers to basic facts, not to newspaper reports in general. News agency and newspaper reports that go beyond a minimal statement of bare facts are copyrighted.[15] Note that the Berne Convention, §2(8) has the same provision.

The moral rights always vest in the author, and are non-transferrable (§15). Furthermore, moral rights are perpetual (§27(1)).

Panorama freedom is restricted to non-commercial uses of the image, and only to images where the portrayed copyrighted building, photograph, or sculpture is not the main subject of the photo. (§21)

The general copyright term was 50 years p.m.a. (introduced in 1993[16], restoring also expired Soviet copyrights, retroactive for 50 years [17]), changed in 2004 to 70 years p.m.a.[18]