[WikiEN-l] Images that are PD in their country of origin

[SlimVirgin]

Can anyone help with an authoritative opinion about this? The doubts about
it are causing problems on a number of articles, including during featured
article reviews.

Where an image is in the public domain in its country of origin, and that
country is not the U.S., I believe we still have to show that it is PD in
the U.S. before we can use it, because the Foundation's servers are in the
U.S.. There seem to be widely differing views on this, even among
Wikipedians who seem knowledgeable about images. Some people say that if the
image was not copyrighted in its country of origin on January 1, 1996, it is
regarded as PD in the U.S., and may be uploaded to the Commons and used on
Wikipedia as PD. This is according to the [[Uruguay Round Agreements Act]].
Others are saying no, this *may* mean they are in the public domain, but
their status as such is not secure.

So my first question is: if an image was regarded as in the public domain on
January 1, 1996 in its (non-U.S.) country of origin, is there a consensus as
to whether we are allowed to use it on Wikipedia as a PD image? If so, what
is the correct tag to use?

My second question: for images that are in the public domain in their
(non-U.S.) country of origin, but were not PD in that country as of January
1, 1996, is there any way we can use them apart from claiming fair use?

Sarah