Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Poland
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Copyright rules: Poland Shortcut: COM:POLAND | |
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| Durations | |
|---|---|
| Standard | Life + 70 years |
| Anonymous | Publish + 70 years |
| Other | |
| Terms run to year end | Yes |
| Common licence tags |
{{PD-old-auto}} {{PD-Polish}} |
| ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 | POL |
| Treaties | |
| Berne convention | 28 January 1920 |
| WTO member | 1 July 1995 |
| URAA restoration date* | 1 January 1996 |
| WIPO treaty | 23 March 2004 |
| *A work is usually protected in the US if it is a type of work copyrightable in the US, published after 1926 and protected in the country of origin on the URAA date. | |
This page provides an overview of copyright rules of Poland relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in Poland must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both Poland and the United States before it can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. If there is any doubt about the copyright status of a work from Poland, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.
Governing laws
Poland has been a member of the Berne Convention since 28 January 1920, the World Trade Organization since 1 July 1995 and the WIPO Copyright Treaty since 23 March 2004.[1]
As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed the Act of February 4, 1994, on Copyright and Related Rights (as amended up Act of September 25, 2015) as the main IP law enacted by the legislature of Poland.[1] WIPO holds the Polish language text of the law as of 2015 with an automatic translation tool in their WIPO Lex database.[2] The act was retroactive, and reinstated copyright that had expired.[1996–2016 Art.124(3)]
Wikisource has an English translation of the original 1994 law.[3] Wikisource also has a Polish-language version as of 2016.[4] Tomasz Rychlicki provides information on some Polish copyright cases on his blog.[5]
General rules
Under the Consolidated 1994 Polish Copyright Law as of 2016,
- Except as specified otherwise below, copyright expires 70 years from the author's death, or from the last surviving co-author's death with works of joint authorship.[1996–2016 Art.36(1)]
- For anonymous or pseudonymous works copyright expires 70 years from date of first being made public, unless the pseudonym does not leave any doubts as to the author's identity or the author disclosed his identity.[1996–2016 Art.36(2)]
- For work to which copyrights are entitled by law to a person other than the author, copyright lasts 70 years from the date of being made public, or from the date of creation if it was not made public in this period.[1996–2016 Art.36(3)]
- For in an audiovisual work, copyright lasts 70 years from the death of the last survivor of the the main director, author of the script, author of dialogues and composer of music composed for the audiovisual work.[1996–2016 Art.36(4)]
- For a musical work with words, if the words and music were composed specifically for this work, copyright lasts for 70 years from the death of the last survivor of the author of the words and composer of the music.[1996–2016 Art.36(5)]
- The duration of copyright is counted in full years following the year in which the event occurred on which the duration is based.[1996–2016 Art.39]
Retroactive changes
- According to the Article 21 of the Copyright law of March 29, 1926 (valid until 1952) photographs lost copyright protection ten years after the picture was taken. Series of scientific or artistic pictures lost copyright protection after 50 years.[6]
- According to Article 27 of the Copyright law of July 10, 1952 (valid until May 23, 1994) photographs and series of photographs lost copyright protection ten years after their publication date.[7]
- However, the retroactive Polish Copyright Law of February 4, 1994, Article 124, put all those images back under copyright protection for 50 years since the death of the author.
- An amendment passed in late 2002, effective January 1, 2003, retroactively extended terms to 70 years after the death of an author.
Not protected
See also: Commons:Unprotected works
Under the Consolidated 1994 Polish Copyright Law as of 2016, copyright protection does not cover:[1996–2016 Art.4]
- normative acts and drafts thereof as well as official documents
- official documents, materials, signs and symbols;
- published patent or protection descriptions;
- simple press information.
However in some instances the use of an image published by the government in Poland might be regulated by other laws. It is being debated if postage stamps and banknotes fall into this category. (See: {{PD-Polishsymbol}})
In the judgment of 27 February 2009 (V CSK 337/2008), the Supreme Court of Poland stated: "The official materials referred to in Article 4 §2 of the [Polish] Copyright Law Act should be understood as materials coming from an office or other institution performing public tasks."[8]
Additionally selected government websites publish content on Creative Commons license unless stated otherwise. As of 10 August 2015 ministerial websites had a following copyright status, free licenses are marked green:
| List of ministries |
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Copyright tags
See also: Commons:Copyright tags
- {{PD-Poland}} – for public domain Polish photographs published in Poland without a copyright notice prior to May 23, 1994.
- {{PD-Polishsymbol}} – for public domain Polish government documents, materials, signs and symbols.
- See also non-PD Polish copyleft license tags: {{PolishSenateCopyright}}, {{PolishPresidentCopyright}}
Currency
See also: Commons:Currency
Not OK. Polish National Bank require written permission for reproduction of Polish banknotes and coins of all emissions in physical or electronic form.[9]
Freedom of panorama
See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama
OK. {{FoP-Poland}} (exterior only)
The copyright act from July 4, 1994 in article 33 point 1 allows one to propagate works that are permanently exhibited on the publicly accessible roads, streets, squares or gardens provided that the propagation is not for the same use. The name of the creator and source should be provided if it is possible by article 34. This use is royalty free, provided that it does not harm the legitimate interests of the creator by article 34.
Stamps
See also: Commons:Stamps
According to Article 4, case 2 of the Polish Copyright Law Act of February 4, 1994 "normative acts and drafts thereof as well as official documents, materials, signs and symbols are not subject to copyrights".
Such materials should use {{PD-Polishsymbol}}.
Unfortunately it is unclear if Polish stamps and banknotes are considered official materials, signs or symbols by Polish law.
In 2009 about 900 files with Polish stamps were deleted (see Commons talk:Stamps/Public domain#Polish stamps are copyrighted for the discussion).
Threshold of originality
Per Tomasz Targosz (Institute of Intellectual Property Law, Jagiellonian University Kraków):
Polish copyright law has quite a long tradition of setting the threshold rather low, which may encourage frivolous lawsuits forcing courts to ponder whether simple graphic designs, short lines of text or even names should or should not be protected by copyright law.
See also
- Polska
- Category:License tags of Poland
- Category:Polish FOP cases
- Category:Stamps of Poland
- User:Piotrus/PolishCopyright
Citations
- ↑ a b Poland Copyright and Related Rights (Neighboring Rights). WIPO: World Intellectual Property Organization (2018). Retrieved on 2018-11-13.
- ↑ Act of February 4, 1994, on Copyright and Related Rights (as amended up Act of September 25, 2015). Poland (2015). Retrieved on 2018-11-13.
- ↑ An English translation of the copyright act at Wikisource
- ↑ The original text of the copyright act at Wikisource (in Polish)
- ↑ Polish case law on copyright (in English) (9 December 2009, Tomasz Rychlicki). Retrieved on 2019-02-07.
- ↑ Copyright law of March 29, 1926 (In Polish)
- ↑ Copyright law of July 10, 1952 (In Polish)
- ↑ Wstępne stanowisko Polskiej Izby Książki (in Polish). Supreme Court of Poland. Retrieved on 2019-03-29. "Pod pojęciem materiałów urzędowych, o których mowa w art. 4 ust. 2 Pr.autor. rozumieć należy materiały pochodzące od urzędu lub innej instytucji wykonującej zadania publiczne."
- ↑ Good practice in the reproduction of images of banknotes and coins. Polish National Bank. Retrieved on 2019-03-29.
- ↑ Supreme Court, 22.06.2010, IV CSK 459/09 – Subject matter of copyright (in English) (2011-04-11). Retrieved on 2019-11-08.