Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Yugoslavia

Copyright rules: Yugoslavia Shortcut: COM:YUGOSLAVIA
Durations
Standard	Life + 50 years
Photograph	Publish + 25 years
Applied art	Publish + 25 years
Other
Common licence tags	{{PD-Yugoslavia}} {{PD-YugoslaviaGov}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	~
Treaties
Berne convention	17 June 1930

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of Yugoslavia relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in Yugoslavia must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both the country of origin 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 Yugoslavia, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

History

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was formed in 1918 after World War I, originally name the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. It was dissolved in 1941 during World War II, but the Republic of Yugoslavia was formed in 1945 with much the same boundaries. Following the Yugoslav Wars that began in 1991 the country broke into Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Yugoslavia. This last was renamed the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in 2003, which broke up into Serbia and Montenegro in 2006. In 2008 Kosovo declared its independence of Serbia. The Republic of Macedonia became the Republic of North Macedonia in 2019. Successor states are thus:

From	Successor	Copyright rules
1991	Croatia	COM:CRT/Croatia
1991	North Macedonia	COM:CRT/North Macedonia
1991	Slovenia	COM:CRT/Slovenia
1992	Bosnia and Herzegovina	COM:CRT/Bosnia and Herzegovina
2006	Montenegro	COM:CRT/Montenegro
2006	Serbia	COM:CRT/Serbia
2008	Kosovo	COM:CRT/Kosovo

The Kingdom of Yugoslavia became a member of the Berne Convention effective 17 June 1930.

The successor states have passed their own copyright laws, but work originating in the former Yugoslavia that entered the public domain in Yugoslavia would be in the public domain in the successor states.

Standard rules

The Yugoslav Copyright Act of 1978 provided for a copyright term of the life of the author plus 50 years, and for 25 years after publication for a photograph or a work of applied art. A work would have entered the public domain under this act if it met one of the following criteria:

• A work of known authorship and the author died before 1972
• An anonymous work and it was published before 1972
• A photograph or a work of applied art published before 1997

A work first published in Yugoslavia would have been in the public domain before the breakup of SFR Yugoslavia in 1991 if it met one of the following criteria:

• A work of known authorship and the author died before January 1, 1941
• An anonymous work and it was published before January 1, 1941
• A photograph or a work of applied art published before January 1, 1966

However, The work would only be in the public domain in the successor state if it met the criteria defined in the law of that state (which could have reinstated copyright on some public domain works). Also, the work would only be in the public domain in the United States if

• It is now in the public domain under United States copyright terms and in the successor state, or
• It was in the public domain in the successor state on the Uruguay Round Agreements Act (URAA) date. This date would be 1 January 1996 for countries that were, on that date, members of either the Berne Convention, the World Trade Organization (WTO) or the WIPO Copyright Treaty.

Copyright tags

Shortcut

• COM:TAG Yugoslavia

See also: Commons:Copyright tags

• {{PD-Yugoslavia}} – Generally 50 years after the author's death, with the exception of photographs or a works of applied art, respectively 25 years since published. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, there are different regulations for the successor states:
  • {{PD-Slovenia}},
  • {{PD-Croatia}},
  • {{PD-Bosnia and Herzegovina}},
  • {{PD-North Macedonia}},
  • {{PD-Montenegro}},
  • {{PD-Serbia}}.

• {{PD-YugoslaviaGov}} – The copyright was owned by the federal authorities of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, whose assets are now held jointly by its successor states:
  • {{PD-SloveneGov}}
  • {{PD-Croatia-exempt}}
  • {{PD-BH-exempt}}
  • {{PD-North Macedonia-exempt}}
  • {{PD-MNEGov}}
  • {{PD-SerbiaGov}}

For more information about Yugoslav copyright laws, see sh:Wikipedia:Autorska prava na području bivše Jugoslavije on the Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia.

External links

• 1978 Yugoslav Copyright Act (Zakon o autorskom pravu)

Caution: The above description may be inaccurate, incomplete and/or out of date, so must be treated with caution. Before you upload a file to Wikimedia Commons you should ensure it may be used freely. See also: Commons:General disclaimer