[Wikipedia-l] Russian pictures - copyright rules

[Anthony DiPierro]

> This is certainly incorrect.  It *is* widely believed that Soviet texts
> dating prior to 1973 (when the USSR became party to the relevant
> convention) may be freely used and considered public domain, but this is
> almost certainly untrue from a legal standpoint, and copyrighted
> material produced subsequent to that date is as protected as this
> message (moreso, perhaps).

The relevant US law is Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 104

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/104.html

In essense, if the work was first published in a country which was not a
party to a copyright agreement with the United States at the time, it is
mostly likely not covered under US copyright law.  Note that I only say most
likely.  I'm not a lawyer, and I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty
details and exceptions.  Also, the laws of other countries will likely
differ.

Anthony