List Of Countries' Copyright Lengths
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Copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
is the right to copy and publish a particular work. The terms "copy" and "publish" are quite broad. They include copying in electronic form, making translated versions, creating a television program based on the work, and putting the work on the Internet. A work is protected by copyright if it is a literary or artistic work. This general expression covers almost all products of creative and original effort. Copyright protects only the specific expression of an idea, not the idea itself. A collection of facts may be copyrighted if there was creative activity involved in compiling the collection. Several countries provide separate protection for collections of facts that qualify as "databases", but that provision is not considered copyright. Copyright protection is automatic upon creation of the work. In some countries, registration with a copyright office has additional benefits, such as the ability to sue, or to receive more money in damages. When a work's copyright term ends, the work passes into the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
.


Berne Convention

The Berne Convention stipulates that the duration of the term for copyright protection is the life of the author plus at least 50 years after their death.Berne Conventio
Article 7
For some categories of works, the minimum duration is shorter: for example, the minimum term for applied art is 25 years, movies have a minimum term of 50 years. Most countries have opted for a longer term of protection, as permitted. Under the Convention, the duration of copyright depends on the length of the author's life. Berne specifies that copyright exists a minimum of 50 years after the author's death, while a number of countries, including the European Union and the United States, have extended that to 70 years after the author's death. A small number of countries have extended copyright even further, with Mexico having the lengthiest term at 100 years after the author's death.


United States

In 1989, the Berne Convention became effective in the U.S. Since that date, U.S. authors obtain copyright on their works automatically, with registration no longer required. However, many U.S. texts on copyright have not been updated and still echo the old registration principle. Copyright registration remains available in the U.S. To initiate a lawsuit against an infringer, registration is still required. Registration offers the potential of statutory damages from the infringer, rather than only actual damages.


European Union

All countries within the European Union are signatory states of the Berne Convention. Additionally, Copyright in the European Union is regulated through European Directives. The member states of the European Union have, following a directive, increased the term to life of the author plus 70 years after their death. Although this was not the original intention, the extension applies retroactively; this had the effect that works that had ended up in the public domain because the author was dead for 50 years, received an additional twenty years of protection. European countries follow the principle that copyright protection is granted automatically upon creation of the work. This principle was first established in the Berne Convention (1886), and Article 5 of the Convention expressly forbids any member country to require formal action for copyright protection.Berne Conventio
Article 5


Copyright duration by country

Countries and respective
copyright term The copyright term is the length of time copyright subsists in a work before it passes into the public domain. In most of the world, this length of time is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years https://w.wiki/ETPJ. Length of copyright ...
s, with length of standard
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
in years are listed. Entries for non-country entities are included: the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
, Berne Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention, which set minimum terms for their member states or signatories. The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), though not included, requires a copyright length of at least 50 years after death.


Legend

* 0, has no copyright = Not copyrighted at all * Life + xx years = Copyrighted for authors' lifetime plus xx years after their deaths * xx years after publication, creation, etc. = copyrighted for xx years since publication, creation, etc., of works * Until year end = Copyrighted until the end of a calendar year, i.e. 31 December, unless otherwise specified * Berne = Country has signed the Berne Convention, see Berne in the "Countries, ..." column * TRIPS = The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (
TRIPS Trip may refer to: Arts and entertainment Books Fictional characters * Trip (''Pokémon''), a ''Pokémon'' character * Trip (Power Rangers), in the American television series ''Time Force Power Rangers'' * Trip, in the 2013 film '' Metallica T ...
) is an international agreement administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulation as applied to nationals of other WTO Members. This also indicates that this country has at least a minimum of 50 years after the death of the creator until the copyright expires. * WCT = The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty, (WIPO Copyright Treaty or WCT), is an international treaty on copyright law adopted by the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1996.


Table


See also

* List of parties to international copyright agreements *
Moral rights Moral rights are rights of creators of copyrighted works generally recognized in civil law jurisdictions and, to a lesser extent, in some common law jurisdictions. The moral rights include the right of attribution, the right to have a work p ...
* Copyright of official texts * Rule of the shorter term


Notes


References


External links


Summary of copyright terms
in various countries, with links to summaries or copies of national laws

with links to the official documentation for most listed countries (archived 16 June 2004)

(archived 4 February 2014) {{Copyright law by country *
Length Length is a measure of distance. In the International System of Quantities, length is a quantity with Dimension (physical quantity), dimension distance. In most systems of measurement a Base unit (measurement), base unit for length is chosen, ...
Copyright length Copyright length