Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Russia

Copyright rules: the Russian Federation Shortcut: COM:Russia
Durations
Standard	Life + 70 years
Anonymous	Publish + 70 years
Posthumous	Publish + 70 years
Other
Terms run to year end	yes
Common licence tags	{{PD-old-auto}} {{PD-RusEmpire}} {{PD-Russia-expired}} {{PD-Russia-1996}}
Treaties
Berne convention	13 March 1995
Univ. Copyright Convention	27 May 1973
WTO member	22 August 2012
URAA restoration date‌*	1 January 1996
WIPO treaty	9 February 2009
*‌A work is usually protected in the US if it is a type of work copyrightable in the US, published after 1927 and protected in the country of origin on the URAA date.

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

Governing laws

The Russian Federation has been a member of the Berne Convention since 13 March 1995, the WIPO Copyright Treaty since 5 February 2009 and the World Trade Organization since 22 August 2012.

Copyrights of works created in Russia was based on the Russian copyright law of 1993 and its amendments of 1995 and 2004. Since January 1, 2008, intellectual property rights are regulated by Part IV of the Civil Code and the Implementation act for Part IV of the Civil Code. This new law replaced all previous IP laws in Russia. The same law applies to the works from the former Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic of the Soviet Union, since Russia is recognized as one of the twelve (12) legal successors of the USSR (as a federation of republics). Copyrights of works originating from other former Soviet republics may be claimed by the corresponding post-Soviet states too.

Durations

According to article 1256 of Book IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation No. 230-FZ of December 18, 2006, a work is in the public domain in Russia if it was published on territory of the Russian Empire (Russian Republic) except for territories of the Grand Duchy of Finland and Congress Poland before 7 November 1917 and was not re-published for 30 days following initial publications on the territory of Soviet Russia or any other states.

According to article 1281 of Book IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation No. 230-FZ of December 18, 2006 and articles 5 and 6 of Law No. 231-FZ of the Russian Federation of December 18, 2006 (the Implementation Act for Book IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), a work is in the public domain in Russia if:

• The author died before January 1, 1949.
• The author died between January 1, 1949 and January 1, 1953, did not work during the Great Patriotic War (Eastern Front of World War II) and did not participate in it.
• The work was originally published anonymously or under a pseudonym before January 1, 1943 and the name of the author did not become known during 50 years after publication.
• The work was originally published anonymously or under a pseudonym between January 1, 1943 and January 1, 1953, and the name of the author did not become known during 70 years after publication.
• The work is non-amateur cinema or television film (or shot, or fragment from it), which was first shown between January 1, 1929 and January 1, 1953.

Works of authors who worked during the Great Patriotic War (World War II) or participated in it are extended for 4 years, so they become public domain 74 years after the author's death. (Part 5 of article 1281 of the Russian civil code). If the author was subjected to repression and rehabilitated posthumously, countdown of copyright protection is to begin not from the death date, but from the rehabilitation date. If the work was first published posthumously, the copyright term is counted from the date of that first publication, unless the author was later rehabilitated, in which case it runs again from that later rehabilitation date.

There was a discussion whether pre-1973 works from the Soviet Union are copyright-free, originating in the period of uncertainty after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. It was concluded that this theory is incorrect; see discussions in Template talk:PD-Soviet.

Copyright tags

Shortcut

• COM:TAG Russia

See also: Commons:Copyright tags

PD tags

See also: PD Russia license tags

Since January 1, 2008, intellectual property rights are regulated by Russian law 230-FL of 2006: Part IV of the Civil Code, together with the Russian law 231-FL of 2006: Implementation act for Part IV of the Civil Code. This new law replaced all previous IP laws in Russia.

• In general, {{PD-Russia}} applies.
• {{PD-RusEmpire}} for works that was published on territory of the Russian Empire (Russian Republic) except for territories of the Grand Duchy of Finland and Congress Poland before 7 November 1917 and wasn't re-published for 30 days following initial publications on the territory of the Soviet Russia or any other states.
• {{PD-Russia-1996}} - This work is in the public domain both in Russia and USA because:
  • The author died before January 1, 1942.
  • The author died between January 1, 1942 and January 1, 1946, did not work during the Great Patriotic War (Eastern Front of World War II) and did not participate in it.
  • The work was originally published anonymously or under a pseudonym before January 1, 1943 and the name of the author did not become known during 50 years after publication.
  • The work was originally published anonymously or under a pseudonym between January 1, 1943 and January 1, 1946, and the name of the author did not become known during 70 years after publication.
  • The work is non-amateur cinema or television film (or shot, or fragment from it), which was first shown between January 1, 1929 and January 1, 1946.
• {{PD-RU-exempt}} for state symbols and signs (flags, armorial bearings, decorations, monetary signs and other State symbols and official signs) of Russian Federation.
• {{PD-Brockhaus&Efron}} – for images from the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (1890–1907).

For works first published not only in the RSFSR but in one of the other SSRs too, or simultaneously in various republics of Soviet Union, see the corresponding successor state of the Soviet Union. For instance, for a Soviet work first published in the Ukrainian SSR, see the entry Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Ukraine:Copyright tags. ({{PD-Ukraine}}, in this case.)

Creative Commons tags

• License tags of Russia

Currency

Shortcut

• COM:CUR Russia

See also: Commons:Currency

OK Russian currency is not copyrighted. Monetary items, together with other state symbols, are explicitly excluded from copyright by article 1259(6) of Part IV of the Civil Code of Russia (which covers intellectual property rights). Drafts for such items, however, are copyrighted by their authors. When a public body adopts such a draft and turns it into an official symbol, the resulting official symbol is not copyrighted and may be reproduced without mentioning the original author(s) of the draft. (See article 1264.)

Monetary items were already excluded from copyright in the 1993 legislation, which was in effect until the end of 2007. See article 8 of the 1993 law, as amended in 2004.

Please use {{PD-RU-exempt}} for images of Russian currency.

Freedom of panorama

Shortcut

• COM:FOP Russia

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

• OK for buildings: {{FoP-Russia}}
• OK for works of garden design: {{FoP-Russia}}
•  Not OK for artwork, including sculptures: {{NoFoP-Russia}}

Article 1276 of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation states:

• Free Use of Work Permanently Situated in Places Open for Free Attendance
  1. Reproduction, broadcasting to the air or via cable shall be allowed, without the author's or other copyright holder's consent or payment of royalties, of visual art, or photographic work, that permanently stand in places open for free attendance, except where portrayal of the work by such method is the basic object of that reproduction, or where portrayal of the work is used in commercial purposes.
  2. It shall be allowed to freely use, to reproduce, or to broadcast to the air or via cable works of architecture, of urban development, and works of garden and landscape design, which are situated in places open for free attendance or visible from that places.

The FoP exceptions for works of architecture, urban development, and garden and landscape design, which were added under consultation with Wikimedia Russia, have taken effect with the Civil Code amendments as of October 1, 2014.

Concerning non-architectural artwork, there is still a copyright exception for non-commercial use, but non-commercial use only is not allowed on Commons and unfortunately, we don't have sufficient number of court decisions for clarifying situation. An important court decision states that the copying of a showcase photo is not a creation of a 3D-object in 2 dimensions. See discussion at Commons:Форум/Архив/2010#Судебное решение о фотографиях трёхмерных объектов.

Before January 1 2008, freedom of panorama was regulated by the similar (but not the same) article 21 of Copyright Law of Russia.

Copyright protection expires 70 years after the death of the original author (who is defined as the creator or designer) here. On January 1st of the following year (ie. January 1 of the 71st Year), freely licensed images of the author's 3D works such as sculptures, or monuments are now free and can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. The lack of Freedom of Panorama is no longer relevant here for states with no formal FOP since the author's works are now copyright free."

Crimea

Buildings

• OK. Present consensus on Wikimedia Commons agrees that Russian copyright law now applies to the Russian-occupied territory. Therefore, the more-liberal Russian freedom of panorama, which allows free uses of works of architecture (but not public artistic works), applies to all buildings of Crimea, notwithstanding the lack of recognition of Russia's actions from the international community. See: Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Simferopol Railway Station (images twice nominated, both only resulted to keep with the closing verdict "Crimea is currently using Russian law").

In the past, it was not clear if copyrighted buildings in Crimea fall under the Russian or the more restrictive Ukrainian law, which does not recognize freedom of panorama. Following the Commons precautionary principle, images of knowingly unfree Crimean buildings should not be uploaded to Commons. One relevant past discussion (resulting to this now-mostly abandoned interpretation) is at Commons:Village pump/Copyright/Archive/2014/09#Buildings in Crimea.

Nevertheless, photos of Crimean buildings before February 19, 1954 are subject to the Russian law, irrespective of the current status of Crimea.

Public art (e.g. monuments)

•  Not OK: the Russian freedom of panorama still does not extend to non-architectural works. Their exception only allows non-commercial uses of images of such works.

Stamps

See also: Commons:Stamps

use {{PD-RU-exempt|stamps}}

Pursuant to Article 1259.6 of Part IV of the Civil Code (No. 230-FZ) of the Russian Federation dated 8 December 2006, official symbols and signs (flags, emblems, orders, banknotes, and the like), as well as symbols and signs of municipal formations are not copyrighted. Pursuant to Article 2 of Federal Law No. 176-FZ of the Russian Federation On Postal Service dated July 17, 1999, official signs of postage include "postage stamps and other signs put on mail that give evidence that postage has been paid".

Article 1.1 of Official Postage Signs and Special Postmarks Regulations, put into force on 26 May 1994 by Order 115 of the Ministry of Communication of the Russian Federation, defines the official postage signs concretely and labels postage stamps, souvenir and miniature sheets, stamped envelopes, and postal stationery cards as the postage signs. Even works still under copyright can be used by the Russian post, without altering the copyright status of the work used.

A copyrighted painting can be used on an envelope or such and {{PD-RU-exempt}} will apply, without turning the painting into a Public Domain work. Prerequisite is that the Russian post acquired permission from the copyright-holder. We can safely assume that the Russian post has come to an agreement with the copyright-holder of such work.

Tuva stamps

use {{PD-RU-exempt}}.

From 1921 to 1944, Tuva constituted a sovereign, independent nation under the name of Tannu Tuva, officially, the Tuvan People's Republic, or the People's Republic of Tannu Tuva. The independence of Tannu Tuva, however, was recognized only by its neighbors: the Soviet Union and Mongolia. Since 1944 Tuva has been part of the Russian Federation.

Threshold of originality

Shortcut

• COM:TOO Russia

See also: Commons:Threshold of originality

Automatic camera works

use {{PD-RU-exempt-autocam}}

OK A photowork or a videowork made by automatic camera (Russian: автоматическая камера, not to be confused with automated camera: автоматизированная камера) is not the subject of copyright, because such work is made by technical tool without creative human activity. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Part 80 of Session Resolution No. 10 of April 23, 2019 on Application of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation

Examples

• Any photowork or videowork made by automatic camera for administrative violation record (for example, by automatic camera for driving offense record). The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Part 80 of Session Resolution No. 10 of April 23, 2019 on Application of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation

Simple creative works

 Not OK Simple result (consisted of simple geometric shapes and / or text) of creative work (creative human activity) is copyrightable. The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Part 80 of Session Resolution No. 10 of April 23, 2019 on Application of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation

Examples

• Simple black square as geometric shape is uncopyrightable as itself. However Black Square by Kazimir Malevich is copyrightable because this painting is the result of creative work in recognized art style - suprematism, and it is in Public Domain because of copyright term expiry, not because of result simplicity.

Logos

 In doubt There is no clear precedent in Russian courts for the threshold of originality for simple logos.

Signatures

Shortcut

• COM:SIG Russia

See also: Commons:When to use the PD-signature tag

OK. Signature used for expression of will, identification and authentication, or in similar cases is a legal or technical tool, it is not work of science, literature, or art, so it is not copyrightable.
 Depend on case. Signature used for other purposes can be protected depending on its creativity.

See also

• Russia
• Category:License tags of Russia
• Category:Russian FOP cases
• Category:Stamps of Russia
• Category:Stamps of Tuva
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Soviet Union

Citations

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