RE: [lists] Public Domain in Other Countries

[Edward Barrow <edward@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday, June 24, 2003 6:56 PM, Rosalind Tedford [SMTP:tedforrl@xxxxxxx] 
wrote:
> Sorry for any cross-postings:
>
> I have a faculty member who has run across a site out of Holland with
> some images he would like to use. The site says all the images are in
> the Public Domain but neither he nor I am sure whether Public Domain in
> Holland means it is Public Domain in the US.
>
> Does anyone have good resources for finding out such information from
> foreign web sites and foreign countries??
>
> Any help will be greatly appreciated.
>
> Roz
>
It does not follow automatically, but it is very likely that these images 
are also PD in the USA.  However you should find out more about the site.

Strictly, the only works that are in the public domain in any Berne 
Convention country, including the USA and the Netherlands, are those for 
which the copyright has expired. In both the European Union (of which the 
Netherlands is a founding Member State) and the United States of America, 
copyright now subsists for the life of the author plus seventy years. So if 
it has passed into the public domain by the effluxion of time in the 
Netherlands, it should also have done so in the United States.

(caveat: There may be transitional special cases where the date of 
publication in the US is germane).

But many works are declared by their authors to be "public domain". In 
fact, they remain in copyright; but the author's declaration has the effect 
of giving everyone permission to copy them without further formality. It is 
theoretically possible (but extremely unlikely) for an author to divide 
this grant territorially, so that it would apply only to the European Union 
but not to the USA. In the absence of any further qualification, however, I 
would have thought that an author's declaration that the works are in the 
"public domain" should be construed to apply globally.


If the images are clearly not so old  as to be out of copyright, the safest 
solution is to contact the Dutch website and ask for their confirmation 
that they are PD in the USA. Whether you think it worth the effort will 
depend on your assessment of the risk. If the copyright is not registered 
in the USA, anyone who chose to sue you would only be entitled to actual 
damages and would incur substantial legal costs.

Edward Barrow
New Media Copyright Consultant
http://www.copyweb.co.uk/
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