Hi Maarten,

while browsing through recent additions to https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Paintings_by_Piet_Mondriaan I noticed that people claim that his paintings are in the public domain because: 1. Mondriaan died in 1944 and is dead for 70 years, which qualifies for public domain status in countries with a 70 years post mortem auctoris rule. 2. they claim the individual work to be public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1923.

@Duke University Yes Sir! The problem we face on Wikimedia Commons is that both US copyright and copyright of the country of origin or source country have to be taken into consideration. Basically we don't upload new public domain content to Wikimedia Commons because it's now in the public domain in the United States, but because it has been in public domain over there already and is now also in the public domain in its source country.

As for your first question: His works are available because there are people who upload content based on a don't care and don't want to know approach on copyright. Even simple reality checks like "Is the work even created before 1923 and could it therefore have been published before that year?" are not done as it seems. Mondriaan is a particularly interesting case, due to his work periods in various countries, eventually changing the country of origin or source country (that's the interesting bit for Wikimedia Commons per https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Licensing). Additionally identifying publication status under US copyright law is not as easy as it seems: http://www.publicdomainsherpa.com/copyright-expiration.html I doubt that each and every on Mondriaan's works are made available in compliance with COM:Licensing, but there's a fair chance that several of his works can still be used.

As for your second question: A friendly user has already started the discussion on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Copyright#piet_Mondr...

From my experience on Wikimedia Commons I'd argue that individual public

domain status verification is an exception, not the rule.

Christoph

2015-01-08 10:30 GMT+01:00 Maarten Zeinstra mz@kl.nl:

Hi guys,

Please help me understand this structure.

This year all works of Piet Mondriaan entered the public domain in most countries in the world (he died in 1944). If I understand the URAA these works will probably not enter the Public Domain, However I do see a lot of Mondriaan images on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Mondrian all hosted on Wikimedia Commons.

I also read on Duke University’s pages for the Centre of the Public Domain that no works will enter the public domain in the US until 2019: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday

So how can Mondriaan’s work be present on Wikimedia Commons and the English Wikipedia?

Is this an oversight, that we should just let rest, or am I misunderstanding how Commons deals with the US laws and Public Domain in other countries?

Kind regards,

Maarten Zeinstra

-- Kennisland | www.kl.nl | t +31205756720 | m +31643053919 | @mzeinstra

On 01 Jan 2015, at 18:12 , Christoph Braun christoph.braun.de@gmail.com wrote:

Hi Romaine,

it might be useful for people who intend to upload new public domain content to Wikimedia Commons, to have a look at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:URAA-restored_copyrights

Thanks to URAA, not all files that are in the public domain in any given country are automatically in the public domain in the US as well. Per https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Licensing all files uploaded to Wikimedia Commons must be in the public domain or available under a free licence in the source country AND the United States.

Christoph

2015-01-01 17:57 GMT+01:00 Romaine Wiki romaine.wiki@gmail.com:

...

This sounds to me as something for a blog post!

On January 1 we celebrate Public Domain Day [1] as many works of authors who died 70+ years ago now enter the public domain and can be used freely.

Let us be aware: copyright is temporary. It only lasts during the authors lifetime and 70 years afterwards (in most countries). During those years it is limiting Wikipedia and her sister projects in showing works of art, literature, public art and buildings in countries without freedom of panorama [2], and more in the articles. But now a new batch is freed from copyrights!

An overview of images and texts that are restored or added to the Wikimedia Commons, are collected on: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Romaine/Public_Domain_Day/2015

Many of these files still need a place in articles. You can help!

You can also help by uploading new files of subjects that are freed of copyrights. You can also help by tagging all requests for deletion pages with the category when the file can be restored, which is/was deleted. [3]

As I follow the log of restored files this week, more images and texts will follow. If still files or texts are missing in the list, let me know or add them yourselves.

A very happy Public Domain Day!

Romaine

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Domain_Day [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_panorama [3] - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Undeletion_requests

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