Official texts, as defined in Article 2(4) of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, are texts of a legislative, administrative and legal nature (e.g. statute laws, administrative regulations and court decisions) and the official translations of such texts.
The Convention indicates that it shall be left to the discretion of each member country of the Berne Convention to determine the protection to be granted to such official texts in that country.
Generally, member countries of the Convention include official texts in the public domain. However, the governments of the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries claim a Crown copyright in their works. Many republics of the Commonwealth also copyright their official works, though they have no crown copyright.
Table
Countries and areas
Types of official texts
Terms of copyright protection
References and related articles
Albania
Literary and artistic works being summaries of the official gazette of legislative and administrative nature and their official translations
Work, film or sound recording made by or under the direction or control of the Government, and any work first published by or under the direction or control of the Government.
Reproductions are allowed with certain conditions, whether under Crown Copyright or not.
Reproduction of Federal Law Order (French: Décret sur la reproduction de la législation fédérale et des décisions des tribunaux de constitution fédérale)
China, People's Republic of (Mainland)
Laws; regulations; resolutions, decisions and orders of state organs; other documents of legislative, administrative and judicial nature; and their official translations
a) official documents (laws, decisions of courts, other texts of administrative and normative character), as well as their official translations;
b) official symbols of state (flag, emblem, anthem, award, monetary symbols, other official signs and symbols of state);
c) information of events and facts.
When using the works mentioned in subparagraph "b" of this Article under the other person's name, it is possible to protect the right of author's name.
0, no copyright
Article 8 of the Law of Georgia No.2388-Is of September9, 1999 on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (in Russian, in English)
Proposed official symbols and drafts of formal documents
Can be copyrighted
Article 8 of the Law of Georgia No.2388-Is of September9, 1999 on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights (in Russian, in English)
Germany
A statute, ordinance, official decree or judgment (official work) issued by a German federal or state authority or court
Laws, decrees, regulations, orders, agreements, resolutions, judicial decisions and decisions of governmental bodies, as well as official translations of these texts.
Freely usable when respecting the source and integrity of the works
Regulatory enactments and administrative rulings, other documents issued by the State and Local Governments and adjudications of courts (laws, court judgments, decisions and other official documents), as well as official translations of such texts;
State approved as well as internationally recognized official symbols and signs (flags, coats of arms, anthems, decorations, banknotes, and the like), the use of which is subject to specific regulatory enactments;
Maps, the preparation and use of which are determined by regulatory enactments;
Official texts, in particular the texts of treaties, laws and regulations and those of reports or decisions by authorities of any kind, and translations thereof
official documents of state government agencies and local government agencies of municipal formations, including laws, other legal texts, judicial decisions, other materials of legislative, administrative and judicial character, official documents of international organizations, as well as their official translations;
state symbols and signs (flags, emblems, orders, banknotes, and the like), as well as symbols and signs of municipal formations;
Legal regulation, decision, public charter, publicly accessible register, official document, Slovak technical standard; this includes the preparatory documents and translations
Daily news
Public speeches (with except of the right of inclusion in a collection or edition)
0, no copyright
Slovak Copyright Act (Law No. 618/2003, Section 7, Par. 3, Let. b)
Official texts of a legislative, administrative or legal nature, or in official translations of such texts, or in speeches of a political nature or in speeches delivered in the course of legal proceedings, or in news of the day that are mere items of press information
Constitution, acts, regulations, and official documents (proclamations, text of speeches, news releases, and other documents prepared by civil servants in the course of carrying out their duties), and their translations and compilations by central and local government agencies
Test questions and alternative test questions from all kinds of examinations held pursuant to laws or regulations
Official documents of political, legislative and administrative nature (laws, decrees, resolutions, court awards, State standards, etc.), and their official translations;
State symbols of Ukraine, government awards; symbols and signs of government authorities, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other military formations; symbols of territorial communities; symbols and signs of enterprises, institutions and organizations;
Edicts of government, such as judicial opinions, administrative rulings, legislative enactments, public ordinances, and similar official legal documents
↑ Pursuant to S. 52(1)q.(iii) of the Copyright Act, 1957Archived 2004-11-29 at archive.today , the reproduction or publication of the report of any committee, commission, council, board or other like body appointed by the Government if such report has been laid on the Table of the Legislature does not infringe copyright, unless the reproduction or publication of such report is prohibited by the Government.
↑ Where the official texts incorporate protected works, these may be used by public services within their area of concern without the author’s consent and without any right being thereby conferred on him.
↑ Unpublished governmental literary, dramatic and musical works are under perpetual copyright if never published.
↑ Works created by the several states may be eligible for copyright depending on laws that vary from state to state.
↑ Not copyrightable for reasons of public policy, whether such works are Federal, State, or local as well as to those of foreign governments.
↑ However, Art. 138, Ley sobre el Dercho de Autor as modified by the Decreto del 14 de agosto de 1993, requires specific official permission for the publication of a collection of Venezuelan laws or of public treaties entered into by the Republic or of national court rulings. The permission is to get specific official value of the collection after review for accuracy. Failure to have such a permission makes the work not authorized and without official value.
Related Research Articles
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy and distribute a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States.
Aozora Bunko is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-of-copyright books or works that the authors wish to make freely available.
The copyright law of the European Union is the copyright law applicable within the European Union. Copyright law is largely harmonized in the Union, although country to country differences exist. The body of law was implemented in the EU through a number of directives, which the member states need to enact into their national law. The main copyright directives are the Copyright Term Directive, the Information Society Directive and the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Copyright in the Union is furthermore dependent on international conventions to which the European Union is a member.
Copyright law in Hong Kong to a great extent follows the English model. The Basic Law of Hong Kong, its constitutional document, guarantees a high degree of autonomy and continuation of laws previously in force after its reunification with Mainland China. Hong Kong therefore continues to maintain a separate intellectual property regime from Mainland China. Article 139 and 140 of the Basic Law specifically deal with the protection of copyright in Hong Kong.
Article 139
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall, on its own, formulate policies on science and technology and protect by law achievements in scientific and technological research, patents, discoveries and inventions.
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall, on its own, decide on the scientific and technological standards and specifications applicable in Hong Kong.
Article 140
The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region shall, on its own, formulate policies on culture and protect by law the achievements and the lawful rights and interests of authors in their literary and artistic creation.
See more on https://www.basiclaw.gov.hk/pda/en/basiclawtext/chapter_6.html
A work of the United States government, as defined by the United States copyright law, is "a work prepared by an officer or employee" of the federal government "as part of that person's official duties." In general, under section 105 of the Copyright Act, such works are not entitled to domestic copyright protection under U.S. law and are therefore in the public domain.
Intellectual property rights (IPRs) have been acknowledged and protected in China since the 1980s. China has acceded to the major international conventions on protection of rights to intellectual property. Domestically, protection of intellectual property law has also been established by government legislation, administrative regulations, and decrees in the areas of trademark, copyright, and patent. This has led to the creation of a comprehensive legal framework to protect both local and foreign intellectual property. Despite this, copyright violations are common in the PRC. The American Chamber of Commerce in China surveyed over 500 of its members doing business in China regarding IPR for its 2016 China Business Climate Survey Report, and found that IPR enforcement is improving, but significant challenges still remain. The results show that the laws in place exceed their actual enforcement, with patent protection receiving the highest approval rate, while protection of trade secrets lags far behind. Many US companies have claimed that the Chinese government has stolen their intellectual property sometime in 2009–2019.
The Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations also known as the International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organisations and the Rome Convention, 496 U.N.T.S 43, was accepted by members of the United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property (BIRPI), the predecessor to the modern World Intellectual Property Organization, on 26 October 1961. The Diplomatic Conference was jointly convened by BIRPI, the International Labour Organisation, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The agreement extended copyright related rights protection for the first time to entities or individuals who are not the author but have a close relationship to a copyrighted work, including performers, sound recording producers and broadcasting organizations. As of August 2021, the treaty has 96 contracting parties, with a party defined as a State which has consented to be bound by the treaty and for which the treaty is in force.
Copyright in the Netherlands is governed by the Dutch Copyright Law, copyright is the exclusive right of the author of a work of literature or artistic work to publish and copy such work.
Directive 92/100/EEC is a European Union directive in the field of copyright law, made under the internal market provisions of the Treaty of Rome. It creates a "rental and lending right" as a part of copyright protection, and sets out minimum standards of protection for the related rights of performers, phonogram and film producers and broadcasting organisations.
The Copyright law of the Soviet Union went through several major revisions during its existence. The first Socialist copyright law was passed in 1925. Three years later, it was superseded by a second version that remained in force for more than three decades, until it was replaced in 1961.
Copyright in Russia developed originally along the same lines as in Western European countries. A first copyright statute dated back to 1828, and in 1857, a general copyright term of fifty years was instituted. The copyright law of 1911 was inspired by Western laws of the continental European tradition. One noteworthy exception in Russian copyright law was the "freedom of translation"—any work could be freely translated into another language.
The rule of the shorter term, also called the comparison of terms, is a provision in international copyright treaties. The provision allows that signatory countries can limit the duration of copyright they grant to foreign works under national treatment to no more than the copyright term granted in the country of origin of the work.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, usually known as the Berne Convention, is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886. The Berne Convention has 179 contracting parties, most of which are parties to the Paris Act of 1971.
Crown copyright is a type of copyright protection. It subsists in works of the governments of some Commonwealth realms and provides special copyright rules for the Crown, i.e. government departments and (generally) state entities. Each single Commonwealth realm has its own distinct Crown copyright regulations. There are therefore no common regulations that apply to all or a number of those countries. There are some considerations being made in Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand regarding the "reuse of Crown-copyrighted material, through new licences".
Japanese copyright laws consist of two parts: "Author's Rights" and "Neighbouring Rights". As such, "copyright" is a convenient collective term rather than a single concept in Japan. Japan was a party to the original Berne convention in 1899, so its copyright law is in sync with most international regulations. The 1899 law protected copyrighted works for 30 years after the author's death. Law changes promulgated in 1970 extended the duration to 50 years. However, in 2004 Japan further extended the copyright term to 70 years for cinematographic works. At the end of 2018, as a result of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations and a requirement stemming from the EU–Japan Economic Partnership Agreement., the 70 year term was applied to all works. This new term was not applied retroactively; works that had entered the public domain between 1999 and 29 December 2018 (inclusive) due to expiration remained in the public domain.
The copyright law of Australia defines the legally enforceable rights of creators of creative and artistic works under Australian law. The scope of copyright in Australia is defined in the Copyright Act 1968, which applies the national law throughout Australia. Designs may be covered by the Copyright Act as well as by the Design Act. Since 2007, performers have moral rights in recordings of their work.
Under the law of United Kingdom, a copyright is an intangible property right subsisting in certain qualifying subject-matter. Copyright law is governed by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended from time to time. As a result of increasing legal integration and harmonisation throughout the European Union a complete picture of the law can only be acquired through recourse to EU jurisprudence, although this is likely to change by the expiration of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020, the UK having left the EU on 31 January 2020. On 12 September 2018 the European Parliament approved new copyright rules to help secure the rights of writers and musicians.
The copyright law of Chile is governed by Law No. 17,336, on Intellectual Property of October 2 of 1970 and subsequent amendments. It was implemented in the Decree No. 1122 of the Ministry of Education of Chile on May 17 of 1971.
The copyright law of South Africa governs copyright, the right to control the use and distribution of artistic and creative works, in the Republic of South Africa. It is embodied in the Copyright Act, 1978 and its various amendment acts, and administered by the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission in the Department of Trade and Industry. As of March 2019 a major amendment to the law in the Copyright Amendment Bill has been approved by the South African Parliament and is awaiting signature by the President.
The copyright law of Moldova regulates the copyright laws of Moldova. The first official decree related to copyright in the country was made on 25 November 1991, shortly after its independence on 27 August of the same year. On 25 May 1991, the State Agency on the Protection of Industrial Property (AGEPI) was created, making it the second copyright agency in the country together with the State Agency for Copyright (ADA). In 1993, Moldova signed an agreement on cooperation in the protection of copyright and the related rights between it and other countries, all members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which only came into force in 1999. By the time of this year, Moldova had already created its official copyright law: Law No. 293-XIII, from 1994 but applied since 1995.
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