Commons:Copyright tags/General public domain
General public domain tags describe why a work is in the public domain based on criteria that are not specific to the country or the source of the work. Reasons may be that the author or their heirs released the work into the public domain, that a modified copy is not significantly different from a work in the public domain, that a work is too simple to qualify for copyright protection or that the author died long ago. If the work's source country is not the United States it must also have a tag that shows why it is in the public domain in the United States.
See Commons:Copyright tags/Various free licenses for more specific public domain and free license tags. These are often defined by the source of the file, such as a website or organization. See Category:PD license tags for a full list of PD tags.
Non-U.S. works[edit]
All works hosted at the Commons must be legal to publish in the United States. For non-U.S. "public domain" works, this means they must be in the public domain in both the non-U.S. source country and in the U.S., or there must be an explicit release of the work for the U.S. under a free license.
For non-U.S. works, please add one of the following tags in addition to an appropriate license tag for the country of origin:
- {{PD-US-expired}} for non-sound recording works published (not simply created!) before January 1, 1929.
- {{PD-US-record-expired}} for sound recording works published before January 1, 1924.
- {{PD-URAA-Simul|country|URAA date|reason}} or {{PD-1996|country|URAA date|reason}} if published in 1929 or later, and not copyrighted in the source country on the URAA date (January 1, 1996 for most countries).
- {{Not-PD-US-URAA}} or {{Not-PD-US-URAA|country|URAA date}} for works published in 1929 or later, but copyrighted in the source country on the URAA date, even if that non-U.S. copyright has expired since then. Note that this concerns most works published in 1929 or later by authors who died after 1925, for source countries with a copyright term of "life of author plus 70 years". For works of such authors that were published before 1929, use {{PD-US-expired}} in addition to the appropriate copyright tag for the source country.
- {{Not-free-US-FOP}} for media published under non-US freedom of panorama rules not yet proven to be acceptable in the US.
Sometimes you can use the general time-based automated public domain license tags.
Released into the public domain[edit]
A work may be released into the public domain by the author or their heirs. Tags for different types of release are given below. See also Category:PD-release like license tags, which lists specialized tags for files released by a particular organization or author.
- {{Cc-zero}} – for works released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. Like {{PD-author}}/etc., plus an explicit fallback to an extremely permissive copyright license in cases where releasing into the actual public domain is impossible.
- {{PD-self}} – for works released into the public domain by their creator who is also the uploader.
- {{PD-user|username}} – for works released into the public domain by their creators when the creators are Wikimedia Commons users.
- {{PD-user-en|username}} – for works released into the public domain by their creators when the creators are English Wikipedia users.
- {{PD-user-w|projectcode|projectname|username}} – for works released into the public domain by their creators when the creators are other Wikipedia users.
- The variable projectcode is the language name of the creator's local Wikipedia (e.g. "de" for the German Wikipedia, and "ja" for the Japanese);
- The variable projectname is the human readable project name (e.g. "French Wikipedia", "German Wiktionary", etc).
- The variable username is the creator's log-in name at that project.
- {{PD-author|author}} – for works released into the public domain by non-Wikimedia users. Some further explanation should be given such as a link to the author's website where they explicitly state that they release the work into the public domain (e.g.
{{PD-author|[http://www.sitename.com author]}}). - {{PD-heirs}} – for works released into the public domain by the heirs of the creator.
- {{PD-because|reason}} – generic template; please supply a valid reason for the file being PD.
- {{PD-animal}} – for works created by non-human animals.
- {{PD-algorithm}} – for works created by computer algorithms or artificial intelligences.
Two-dimensional works of art[edit]
See also: Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag, Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag, Commons:Reuse of PD-Art photographs and Category:PD-Art license tags. If a two-dimensional work of art is in the public domain in its country or origin and the United States, then a faithful reproduction may be uploaded to Commons. If the reproduction has also been given a free license, this information should be provided.
- {{PD-Art|PD tag}} – for faithful photographic reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art. The variable PD tag is the name of the copyright tag that describes why the original is in the public domain in the USA and the country of origin. If empty, {{PD-old}} is assumed.
- {{PD-Art-two|Source tag|US tag}} - same as {{PD-Art}}, but allows country of origin and US licenses to be added separately. Additional parameters are
|deathyear= |publication= - {{Licensed-PD-Art}} - template explaining why a photograph of a public domain object is public domain in the United States, while outside the US a separate license can be used. Used when the photograph has been released under a free license such as {{PD-self}} or {{Cc-zero}}.
- {{Licensed-PD-Art-two}} - same as {{Licensed-PD-Art}}, but allows country of origin and US licenses to be added separately
- {{Art Photo}} - Combination template of {{Artwork}} for the object and {{Information}} for the photograph metadata, which allows user to provide separate artwork and photograph licenses
- {{PD-scan}} – for scans of public domain originals which may have been enhanced, but only to the extent that no independent copyright protection can be expected to arise out of the enhancements. See also Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag.
- {{PD-retouched-user}} – for public domain works that have been significantly retouched or modified by a Commons user. This explicitly releases all rights to those modifications.
Threshold of Originality[edit]
Some works are too simple to be eligible for copyright protection. See Commons:Threshold of originality.
- {{PD-chart}} – for simple charts and graphs.
- {{PD-map}} – for simple maps.
- {{PD-chem}} – chemistry structures.
- {{PD-textlogo}} – logos that only consist of simple geometric shapes and/or text.
- {{PD-text}} – simple text, other than a logo.
- {{PD-shape}} – simple geometry shapes.
- {{PD-font}} – raster renderings of a font or typeface. See Commons:Licensing section on Fonts.
- {{PD-scan}} or {{PD-scan-two}} – simple, non-creative reproductions of two-dimensional subjects. If the depicted subject is a creative work, it should also have its own license tag.
- {{PD-ancient-script}} – SVG representations of an ancient script.
- {{PD-medical}} – technical images created as part of standard medical diagnostic procedures.
- {{PD-ineligible}} – works too trivial to be copyrighted.
Additional templates describing ineligible works may be found at Category:PD-ineligible license tags.
Time based public domain[edit]
- {{PD-old}} – for works in the public domain because their copyright has expired.
- {{PD-old-100}} – for works in the public domain because their copyright has expired in countries and areas copyrighting works for life plus 100 years or less.
- {{PD-old-95}} – for works in the public domain because their copyright has expired in countries and areas copyrighting works for life plus 95 years or less.
- {{PD-old-80}} – for works in the public domain because their copyright has expired in countries and areas copyrighting works for life plus 80 years or less.
- {{PD-old-75}} – for works in the public domain because their copyright has expired in countries and areas copyrighting works for life plus 75 years or less.
- {{PD-old-70}} – for works in the public domain because their copyright has expired in countries and areas copyrighting works for life plus 70 years or less.
- {{PD-old-50}} – for works in the public domain because their copyright has expired in the USA and countries and areas copyrighting works for life plus 50 years or less.
- {{PD-anon-70}} – for works in the public domain because their copyright has expired in countries and areas copyrighting anonymous or pseudonymous works for 70 years from the year of first publication or less. If possible, please use a different template:
- {{PD-anon-expired}} – for works published before 1929;
- {{PD-anon-auto-1996}} – for non-EU works published in or after 1929, but which are known to be PD on the relevant URAA date (usually 1996, sometimes later); or
- {{PD-anon-70-EU}} – for EU works.
- {{PD-anon-50}} – anonymous work more than 50 years old (Berne Convention).
- {{PD-old-assumed}} – for works assumed to be public domain because they were created over 120 years ago and the author's date of death is unknown.
Warning: All the above general time-based public domain tags are not sufficient if alone. All media files on Wikimedia Commons tagged with these licenses must also be tagged with a license that is explicitly valid in the United States: see COM:TAG United States.
- {{PD-anon-expired}} – anonymous work published more than 95 years ago (USA and countries and areas where the copyright terms of anonymous or pseudonymous works are 95 years or less since publication).
Time based automated public domain licenses[edit]
- {{PD-old-auto-expired}} is for works eligible for {{PD-US-expired}}, but with enhanced function. Depending on which year an author has died, entering {{PD-old-auto-expired|author's death year}} will automatically pick:
- {{PD-old-auto-1996}} is for works eligible for {{PD-1996}}, but with enhanced function. Depending on which year an author has died, it will automatically pick:
- {{PD-anon-auto-1996}} is for anonymous works eligible for {{PD-1996}}. Depending on which year an anonymous work was published, it will automatically show the appropriate details.