Help:Copyrights

See also: WD:LIBRE and wikidata:open data publishing

Wikidata offers several properties and qualifiers for storing copyright information, this page's goal is to explain how to use them. Many laws might restrict the use of various works and materials in addition to copyrights, for example laws related to trademarks, patents, personality rights, authors' moral rights, etc. This page covers only copyrights.

The aim of copyright data model is to allow works to have multiple copyright statuses for different jurisdictions (use applies to jurisdiction (P1001) qualifier), based on different principles (use determination method (P459) qualifier) and time periods (use start time (P580)/end time (P582) qualifiers). That is accomplished by using copyright status (P6216) as an anchor property with additional qualifiers bundled within. An example might look as follows:

copyright status	public domain edit applies to jurisdiction countries with 100 years pma or shorter determination method 100 years or more after author(s) death 0 references add reference
		add value

Qualifiers for different types of work

Property copyright status (P6216) in great majority of cases will take only two values:

• public domain (Q19652), or
• copyrighted (Q50423863).

Qualifiers for copyright status (P6216) differ for copyrighted and public domain works. Whereas public domain works need qualifiers that help confirm the public domain status of the work, the copyrighted works need qualifiers that help determine the copyright holders and future public domain date.

Public Domain Works

Use copyright status (P6216)public domain (Q19652) with following qualifiers

Qualifier	Possible values	Explanation
determination method (P459) (required)	See example items below.	justification why work is in Public Domain.
applies to jurisdiction (P1001) (required)	See example items below.	stating a country or countries, where copyright applies, with default being worldwide.
laws applied (P3014)	Items: article 37 Dutch copyright law from 1995 (Q29862345), article 38-2 Copyright Act (Q47014931), article 38 member 1 Dutch Copyright Act (Q47014907)	justification why work is in Public Domain linking it to specific law. In many cases laws applied (P3014) should be a property of items linked through determination method (P459) property.
start time (P580) end time (P582)	Dates	start and end dates when statement is true. end time (P582) should not be used except for rare cases where PD works become copyrighted again.

Copyrighted works

Works with copyright status (P6216)copyrighted (Q50423863) will fall into two broad categories: works released under a license, like one of Creative Commons licenses, and works for which all rights reserved is stated or assumed. Copyrighted works should use the following qualifiers

Qualifier	Possible values	Explanation
determination method (P459) (required)	See example items below.	How do we know the work is still copyrighted?
applies to jurisdiction (P1001)	See example items below.	Country or list of countries, where copyright applies.
copyright license (P275)	See example items below.	Examples: GPLv2, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International.
public domain date (P3893)	Date	When will the copyright expire and work fall into Public Domain?
start time (P580) end time (P582)	Dates	Start and end dates when statement is true. start time (P580) should not be used except for rare cases where PD works become copyrighted again. end time (P582) should be used after work falls into public domain and statement is no longer true.
copyright holder (P3931)	Items, person/organisation, untraceable copyright owner (Q60711924) for orphan works	copyright holder (P3931) is meant to store the copyright owner or the copyright representative of the work if known. Copyright ownership can be uncertain as copyright can be sold or transfered. The copyright owner can be a person, a collective right organisation, fund, or abstract like heirs (Q29902355). The copyright owner or representative of an author might be mentioned if known for the entry of that person with copyright representative (P6275).
Wikimedia VRTS ticket number (P6305)	16 digit number	Identifier linking file with email exchange stored in OTRS database confirming the validity of the license.

Additional allowed qualifiers

Additional qualifiers that are useful for both public domain works and copyrighted works:

Qualifier	Possible values	Explanation
author (P50) creator (P170)	Items	specified as qualifier for the copyright statement if there are multiple authors/creators and we are tracking copyrights of each one separately.
applies to part (P518)	Items:	allow us to specify copyrights of works current work was derived from, objects in the photograph, sound and video part of a movie, composer and performers, etc.
comment (DEPRECATED) (P2315)	Free text	Free text explanation of whatever can not be explained through other means. Should not be used much.
statement disputed by (P1310) statement supported by (P3680)	Items
sourcing circumstances (P1480)	disputed (Q18912752)

Helper items

Items linked through applies to jurisdiction (P1001) qualifier

The property applies to jurisdiction (P1001), used as a qualifier of copyright statement should link to either:

• Items for countries, like United States of America (Q30), Germany (Q183) or Japan (Q17)
• For whole world use worldwide (Q13780930)
• Groups of countries and jurisdictions with similar copyrights (subclasses of grouping of jurisdictions around copyright legislation (Q63705939)), like

• Lists of countries with copyright terms based on authors' deaths (post mortem auctoris or pma) (subclasses of countries with pma copyright (Q108698760)):

• countries with 15 years pma or shorter (Q114772623) & countries with longer than 15 years pma (Q114772416) - see countries with 15 years pma (Q114773644)
• countries with 25 years pma or shorter (Q68543134) & countries with longer than 25 years pma (Q108702088) - see countries with 25 years pma (Q114764460)
• countries with 45 years pma or shorter (Q114771767) & countries with longer than 45 years pma (Q114772428) - see countries with 45 years pma (Q114771351)
• countries with 50 years pma or shorter (Q59621182) & countries with longer than 50 years pma (Q87048619) - see countries with 50 years pma (Q114763455) - general Berne Convention minimum term
• countries with 60 years pma or shorter (Q105480667) & countries with longer than 60 years pma (Q114772452) - see countries with 60 years pma (Q114784833)
• countries with 70 years pma or shorter (Q59542795) & countries with longer than 70 years pma (Q60845045) - see countries with 70 years pma (Q73560261) - copyrights for European Union members, US works published after 1978
• countries with 74 years pma or shorter (Q114772665) & countries with longer than 74 years pma (Q114772499) - see countries with 74 years pma (Q114784954) - copyrights for "authors who worked during the Great Patriotic War" in Russia
• countries with 78 years pma or shorter (Q114772672) & countries with longer than 78 years pma (Q114772501) - see countries with 78 years pma (Q114785234)
• countries with 80 years pma or shorter (Q61830521) & countries with longer than 80 years pma (Q114772502) - see countries with 80 years pma (Q114785238)
• countries with 85 years pma or shorter (Q114772022) & countries with longer than 85 years pma (Q114772552) - see countries with 85 years pma (Q114771397)
• countries with 90 years pma or shorter (Q108698312) & countries with longer than 90 years pma (Q114772555) - see countries with 90 years pma (Q114785302)
• countries with 95 years pma or shorter (Q108698353) & countries with longer than 95 years pma (Q114772562) - see countries with 95 years pma (Q114785307) - copyrights for US works published between 1923 and 1978 - prior terms were 75 years, for 1909–1923 works; 56 years, 42 years, 28 years historically
• countries with 100 years pma or shorter (Q60332278) & countries with longer than 100 years pma (Q114772573) - see countries with 100 years pma (Q114785335)

• countries which use the rule of the shorter term (Q61753997)

reference:

• based on heuristic (P887) -> inferred from death date of participant (Q96242333)

also reference either:

• laws applied (P3014) -> instances of copyright law (Q67011165) such as copyright law of the United States (Q842270) or copyright law of the European Union (Q3829820)
• laws applied (P3014) -> instances of copyright act (Q63718677) such as Copyright Act of 1976 (Q3196755) or Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (Q55110225)

Items linked through determination method (P459) qualifier

See list at Help:Copyrights/Copyright determination method

Property determination method (P459) is used to express how do we know work is in public domain or still copyrighted. Each jurisdiction has unique copyright laws, but they follow broad trends except for contemporary works. Differences between jurisdictions are often most visible in how they treat older works and for example United States law is so complicated it has its own section below. You can see what determination method (P459) properties are currently in use on Wikidata if you use this SPARQL query.

copyright determination method (Q61005213)

Based on authors' deaths (post mortem auctoris or pma)

• results in works protected by copyrights (Q73555012)
  • creator who is not dead (Q63860166)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> creator who is not dead (Q63860166)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> life of last surviving author (Q107675989)
  • 50 years or less since death of author(s) (Q63860173)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died less than 50 years ago (Q96095541)
  • 70 years or less since death of author(s) (Q114789518)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died less than 70 years ago (Q96095416)
• results in copyrights on works have expired (Q71887839)
  • 15 years or more after author(s) death (Q68542701)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 15 years ago (Q114827633)
  • 25 years or more after author(s) death (Q108702158)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 25 years ago (Q114827634)
  • 45 years or more after author(s) death (Q114818692)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 45 years ago (Q114827674)
  • 50 years or more after author(s) death (Q29870405)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 50 years ago (Q96095093)
  • 60 years or more after author(s) death (Q114818719)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 60 years ago (Q114827763)
  • 70 years or more after author(s) death (Q29870196) - applies to European Union members, US for works published after 1978 and other countries
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 70 years ago (Q96095089)
  • 74 years or more after author(s) death (Q114818787) - applies to "authors who worked during the Great Patriotic War" in Soviet Union and successor states
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 74 years ago (Q114827764)
  • 78 years or more after author(s) death (Q114818791)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 78 years ago (Q114827818)
  • 80 years or more after author(s) death (Q29940641) - applies to Spain
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 80 years ago (Q97971374)
  • 85 years or more after author(s) death (Q114818794)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 85 years ago (Q114827869)
  • 90 years or more after author(s) death (Q114818795)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 90 years ago (Q114827872)
  • 95 years or more after author(s) death (Q114818797)
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 95 years ago (Q114827875)
  • 100 years or more after author(s) death (Q29940705) - applies to Mexico
    • reference based on heuristic (P887) -> died more than 100 years ago (Q96095092)

also reference either:

• laws applied (P3014) -> instances of copyright law (Q67011165) such as copyright law of the United States (Q842270) or copyright law of the European Union (Q3829820)
• laws applied (P3014) -> instances of copyright act (Q63718677) such as Copyright Act of 1976 (Q3196755) or Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (Q55110225)

Based on publication date

• 25 years or less since publication (Q61752729) - applies for example to photographs in Cuba, (see copyright law of Cuba (Q61729533))
• 25 years since publication of previously-unpublished posthumous work (Q29940790) - applies to formerly unpublished material in the European Union and US
• 60 years or less since publication (Q60628165) - applies to India, Venezuela
• 70 years since publication by anonymous author (Q60628769) - applies to European Union members and other countries
• 95 years after publication works made for hire and anonymous and pseudonymous works (Q61138249)

reference:

• based on heuristic (P887) -> inferred from publication date (Q110393725)

also reference either:

• laws applied (P3014) -> instances of copyright law (Q67011165) such as copyright law of the United States (Q842270) or copyright law of the European Union (Q3829820)
• laws applied (P3014) -> instances of copyright act (Q63718677) such as Copyright Act of 1976 (Q3196755) or Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (Q55110225)

Government works

• 50 years after publication of Crown work (Q61889273)
• official text of a legislative, administrative or legal nature (Q61002900) - edicts of government doctrine

Other

• ineligible for copyright protection (Q61005058) - works not meeting the legal requirements to be "valid subject matter", such as threshold of originality (Q707401) or human authorship
  • news of the day (Q114794167) - specifically excluded by law from copyright protection in some jurisdictions - please research exact applicability before use - see w:Wainwright Securities v. Wall Street Transcript Corp
  • simple facts (Q114798319) - specifically excluded by law from copyright protection in some jurisdictions please research exact applicability before use - see w:Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co.
  • no copyright because created by a non-human animal (Q77406753) - such works lack "human authorship", as required for threshold of originality (Q707401) - see w:Monkey selfie copyright dispute#Copyright issues
• public domain as not covered by copyright law (Q50551851) - works explicitly excluded from protection by the copyright laws of specific jurisdictions, like methods of operation, clothing and utilitarian objects in US, etc. More specific rules listed below may apple.
  • state symbols and signs (Q114794799) - specifically excluded by law from copyright protection in some jurisdictions - please research exact applicability before use
  • national folklore (Q114796148) - specifically excluded by law from copyright protection in some jurisdictions - please research exact applicability before use
  • means of payment (Q114798305) - specifically excluded by law from copyright protection in some jurisdictions - please research exact applicability before use
  • ideas, theories, concepts, discoveries and inventions (Q114798293) - specifically excluded by law from copyright protection in some jurisdictions - please research exact applicability before use
• stated by copyright holder at source website (Q61045577)
• determined by GLAM institution and stated at its website (Q61848113)

Works in the US

US copyrights are explained at Wikidata:Hirtle chart. You can see what determination method (P459) properties are currently in use on Wikidata if you use this SPARQL query.

The below helper items are created specifically for categories of works that are in the public domain based on either creation date or publication date.

Based on creation date

• 120 years after creation of unpublished anonymous and pseudonymous works, and works made for hire (Q61138764) - applies to US
• 120 years after creation of unpublished work by an author whose year of death is not known (Q29940870) - applies to US
• 100 years after creation by anonymous author (Q60952328) - applies to US

Based on publication date

until 1924

• published more than 95 years ago (Q47246828) - applies to US, with specific subclasses, all those entered public domain:
  • 14 years after publication with notice (Q60932359)
  • copyright not renewed (Q29941035)

between 1924-1963

• copyright not renewed (Q29941035)
• 95 years after publication with notice and renewal (Q29940912) - see help page Wikisource for Copyright renewals

between 1964-1977

• 95 years after publication with notice (Q61862704)

Other

• work of the federal government of the United States (Q60671452)
• official text of a legislative, administrative or legal nature (Q61002900) - edicts of government doctrine - for edicts of the US federal government use above - see w:Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc.
• no copyright due to missing copyright notice (Q47012574)
• no copyright due to error in copyright notice (Q61062601)
• news of the day (Q114794167) - see w:Wainwright Securities v. Wall Street Transcript Corp
• simple facts (Q114798319) - see w:Feist Publications, Inc., v. Rural Telephone Service Co.

Items linked through copyright license (P275) qualifier

All the items linked through copyright license (P275) property should be of the type (or sub-type):

• public license (Q7257461) - work uses one of the many standard public copyright licenses, like free or open source licenses
• proprietary license (Q3238057) - work (usually software) uses some one-of-the-kind propriatary license
• all rights reserved (Q1752207) - copyright holder reserves all the rights provided by the copyright law

In case of public license (Q7257461) items, ideally they will come with the following properties :

• topic's main template (P1424) link to actual license templates used on Wikimedia Commons and other projects.
• full work available at URL (P953) and official website (P856) links to URL with text of the license
• ...

Below is a list of some standard licenses. The list was generated with this SPARQL query.

Creative Commons Licenses

Short list of Creative Commons Licenses

License	associated template
Creative Commons CC0 License (Q6938433)	Template:CC0 (Q5271108)
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (Q20007257)	Template:Cc-by-4.0 (Q15243503)
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (Q18199165)	Template:Cc-by-sa-4.0 (Q15243492)
Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 4.0 International (Q36795408)	Template:Cc-by-nd-4.0 (Q26089788)
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (Q34179348)	Template:Cc-by-nc-4.0 (Q15924707)
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International (Q24082749)	Template:Cc-by-nc-nd-4.0 (Q26089790)
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (Q42553662)	Template:Cc-by-nc-sa-4.0 (Q26074637)

Free Software Foundation Licenses

Short list of Free Software Foundation Licenses

License	associated template
GNU Free Documentation License, version 1.3 or later (Q27019786)	Template:GFDL-1.3-or-later (Q60993963)
GNU General Public License, version 3.0 or later (Q27016754)	Template:GPLv3 or later (Q25970720)
GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3.0 or later (Q27016762)	Template:LGPLv3 or later (Q50932481)
GNU Affero General Public License, version 3.0 or later (Q27020062)	Template:AGPL v3.0+ (Q50932455)

Other Licenses

Short list of Other Licenses

License	associated template
Adaptive Public License (Q4680711)	Template:APL (Q51433063)
Apache License, Version 2.0 (Q13785927)	Template:Apache-2.0 (Q46044420)
Apple Public Source License (Q621330)	Template:APSL (Q51433048)
Artistic License 2.0 (Q14624826)	Template:Artistic-2 (Q51432971)
3-clause BSD License (Q18491847)	Template:BSD (Q6595879)
Beerware (Q10249)	Template:Beerware (Q50932511)
CeCILL (Q1052189)	Template:CeCILL (Q60997839)
Free Art License (Q152332)	Template:FAL (Q5912469)
MIT License (Q334661)	Template:MIT (Q8117901)
Mozilla Public License, version 2.0 (Q25428413)	Template:MPL2 (Q61013691)
Open Database License (Q1224853)	Template:ODbL (Q55669982)
Open Government Data License Taiwan 1.0 (Q47001673)	Template:OGDL (Q29650284)
WTFPL (Q152481)	Template:WTFPL v2 (Q50932405)

Properties relevant to copyrights

Those might relate to the same item, but are not qualifiers of copyright status (P6216).

Legal geographical aspects

• country of origin (P495) jurisdiction for creation, is in certain cases important to calculate copyright terms. For example, in the US there are other rules for works first published abroad. Also in the situation of rule of the shorter term (Q1318221)
• place of publication (P291) jurisdiction for first publication
• location of first performance (P4647) jurisdiction for first presentation

Legal date aspects

• inception (P571) relevant to calculate dates after creation
• publication date (P577) relevant for literature as this declares the first publication
• date of first performance (P1191) relevant for artworks like paintings to declare the published/unpublished situation

Legal authorship aspects

The following creator properties include possible copyright owners in copyright laws:

• author (P50)
• creator (P170)
• publisher (P123)
• director (P57)
• screenwriter (P58)
• producer (P162)
• lyrics by (P676)
• composer (P86)
• performer (P175)
• possible creator (P1779)
• author of foreword (P2679)
• editor (P98)
• illustrator (P110)
• author of afterword (P2680)
• contributor to the creative work or subject (P767)
• translator (P655)
• architect (P84)
• landscape architect (P7514)
• designed by (P287)
• performer (P175)
• discoverer or inventor (P61)
• voice actor (P725)
• film editor (P1040)
• choreographer (P1809)
• costume designer (P2515)

see also modeling Commons discussion on authorship properies

Relevant copyright properties on authors

• employer (P108) - if working for an organisation and the work is work related, copyright might belong to that organisation
• copyright representative (P6275)
• date of death (P570) - relevant for p.m.a.
• author copyright status (to be proposed)

RightsStatements

RightsStatements.org is an international effort among major cultural heritage institutions to create a global standard for rights statements for works. It has already been implemented by major repositories such as Europeana and DPLA, and many others. A work might be assigned one of a dozen possible statements, which can be stored on Wikidata using RightsStatements.org statement according to source website (P6426) property.

As discussed and agreed during the Property Proposal, this property may ONLY be applied to Items about copyrightable works for which the organisation that owns the original work has itself placed one of the official RightsStatement.org labels in the metadata.

As of the date of approval of this Property there are 12 such Statements. Furthermore, only some of those 12 Statements are applicable to be modeled in Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons due to the policies of those projects.

The table below indicates which of the RightsStatements.org statements can be applied to the works' Wikidata item (if the above criteria is met) or Structured Data on Commons. The table is partially based on RightsStatement.org blog post clarifying the scope of each statement.

Icon	Meaning
	May be used on a Wikidata item
	May be used within Wikimedia Commons Structured Data information and the file very likely meets Commons Licensing policy
	May be used within Wikimedia Commons Structured Data information; however, the file will have to be individually evaluated to determine if it meets Commons Licensing policy

RS.org Statement + QID	Statement refers to: the original work or it's digital reproduction	Permitted to be used on: Wikidata and/or Commons
In Copyright (Q47530729)	original + reproduction
In Copyright - EU Orphan Work (Q47530688)	original + reproduction
In Copyright - Rights-holder(s) Unlocatable or Unidentifiable (Q47530802)	original + reproduction
No Copyright - United States (Q47530911)	original + reproduction	+
No Known Copyright (Q47530955)	original + reproduction	+
Copyright Not Evaluated (Q47530926)	original + reproduction	+
Copyright Undetermined (Q47530946)	original + reproduction	+
No Copyright - Contractual Restrictions (Q47530853)	reproduction
No Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Only (Q47530884)	reproduction
No Copyright - Other Known Legal Restrictions (Q47530902)	reproduction
In Copyright - Non-Commercial Use Permitted (Q47530780)	reproduction	–
In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted (Q47530757)	reproduction	–

Examples

item	copyright statement	Explanation
Woman of the Mango (Q18357854)	copyright status public domain edit applies to jurisdiction countries with 100 years pma or shorter determination method 100 years or more after author(s) death 0 references add reference add value	Copyrights have expired 100 years after author's death. Woman of the Mango (Q18357854), is a painting by Paul Gauguin (Q37693) who died in 1903, or more than 100 years ago. Such work would be in public domain in all the countries where copyright expires some number of years since author's death (Latin: Post mortem auctoris or pma), since there are no jurisdictions where that period is longer than 100 years. Equivalent to template:PD-old-100 on Wikimedia Commons. Copyright situation in the United states is less clear, and depends on information if the work was published with approval of the copyright holder or not. If a reproduction of this work was published more than 95 years ago than the work is in Public Domain in the US. Same if it was never published, since than copyrights have expired 70 years after author's death. However if the first authorized publication occured less than 95 years ago than there is a chance that this work is still copyrighted in the US.
Little Johnny Jones (Q6650560)	copyright status public domain edit applies to jurisdiction United States of America determination method published more than 95 years ago 0 references add reference public domain edit applies to jurisdiction countries with 70 years pma or shorter determination method 70 years or more after author(s) death 0 references add reference add value	Copyrights in US have expired in the US 95 years after publication (before 1929). In the US Copyright term is calculated based on date of publication. Since author George M. Cohan (Q563017) died in 1942, the musical is in Public Domain in most of the world. Equivalent to template:PD-old-70-expired on Wikimedia Commons.
Google logo (Q1764530)	copyright status public domain edit applies to jurisdiction United States of America determination method ineligible for copyright protection 0 references add reference add value	Google Logo is protected by trademark laws, but it is not copyrighted. The reason copyright laws do not apply to Google Logo is that you can not copyright a word, typed using standard Sans-serif font and primary colors (plus yellow).
Atomic Cloud Rises Over Nagasaki (Q55437339)	copyright status public domain edit applies to jurisdiction United States of America determination method work of the federal government of the United States 0 references add reference add value	Works prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties are in in the Public Domain in the US. Equivalent to template:PD-USGov on Wikimedia Commons. Since the photographer Charles Levy (Q55437350) died in 1997, this work might not be in Public Domain in other jurisdictions.
Hirtle chart (Q61196189)	copyright status copyrighted edit copyright license Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported determination method stated by copyright holder at source website object named as © 2004-2019 Peter B. Hirtle. [] Use of this chart is governed by the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. 0 references add reference add value	Copyright rules chart by Peter B. Hirtle was released under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license.
The Grapes of Wrath (Q215983)	copyright status copyrighted edit applies to jurisdiction United States of America determination method 95 years after publication with notice and renewal public domain date 1 January 2035 0 references add reference copyrighted edit applies to jurisdiction countries with longer than 70 years pma determination method 70 years or more after author(s) death public domain date 1 January 2039 0 references add reference add value	The grapes of wrath novel by John Steinbeck is still copyrighted in the US and in most of the world
Het achterhuis (Q14624856)	copyright status public domain edit applies to jurisdiction countries with 70 years pma or shorter determination method 70 years or more after author(s) death start time 1 January 2016 author Anne Frank 3 references reference URL https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jan/18/anne-franks-diary-caught-in-fierce-european-copyright-battle stated in The Guardian publication date 18 January 2016 reference URL https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/anne-frank-diary-young-girl-published-online-amid-copyright-dispute-1535672 stated in International Business Times publication date 2 January 2016 add reference copyrighted edit applies to jurisdiction United States of America public domain date 2047 determination method 95 years after publication with notice and renewal 0 references add reference copyrighted edit applies to jurisdiction countries with 70 years pma or shorter determination method 70 years or more after author(s) death end time 2050 author Otto Heinrich Frank applies to part compilation statement supported by Anne Frank Fund sourcing circumstances disputed applies to part disputed 0 references add reference add value	In case of 1st edition of Anne Frank diary Het achterhuis (Q14624856) the copyright should be straight forward: Anne Frank died in 1944, so her works are in public domain in all the countries with 70 year pma or shorter In the US Het achterhuis (Q14624856) is still copyrighted since US protects copyrights for 95 years since publication for works published through 1977. Copyright in Netherlands also expired in 2016, but for more complex reasons. For details see article in English Wikipedia. However, the case become more complicated after, Anne Frank Fund the foundation that held the copyrights to the book, made a claim that Anne Frank's father, Otto Heinrich Frank was not just the editor of the book, but also a coauthor. That would extend the copyrights to 2050, 70 years after Frank's death. This claim is disputed.
The Tragedy of King Richard the Second (Q59570050)	copyright status public domain edit applies to jurisdiction United States of America determination method published more than 95 years ago 0 references add reference public domain edit applies to jurisdiction countries with 100 years pma or shorter determination method 100 years or more after author(s) death applies to part body text 0 references add reference copyrighted edit applies to jurisdiction countries with longer than 70 years pma determination method 70 years or more after author(s) death applies to part front and back matter of a book public domain date 1 January 2046 0 references add reference add value	Whole book is public domain in the US by virtue of the publication date (>95 years ago) Book text is public domain most of the world by virtue of the author's date of death William Shakespeare (Q692) (>100 years ago) front and back matter of a book are under copyright most of the world by virtue of the editor's date of death Llewellyn Morgan Buell (d. 1975)

How to add Copyright statements?

Copyright statements are a bit clunky to add by hand, as they always require multiple qualifiers. In the future we should build tools for easily adding a some of the most often used statements. Below are some of the existing tools which might be useful.

moveClaim.js

MoveClaim is a very useful tool designed for moving and copying statements from one item to another. Installation tips can be found at Wikidata:Tools/Edit items. In case of Copyright statements one can use it to copy statements from one item with properly set up copyright statements to another. All you need is an item number of the destination item. Use this SPARQL query to find exemplar items for different cases.

QuickStatements

QuickStatements is an excellent tool for adding statements to batches of items. See Help:QuickStatements to learn how to use it. QuickStatements can be used without issues when adding single new statement to an item without any. However it has some unexpected behavior when one wants to add multiple statements. For example, importing the following V1 commands:
Q70784 P6216 Q19652 P1001 Q30 P459 Q47246828
Q70784 P6216 Q19652 P1001 Q60332278 P459 Q29940705

should have resulted in

copyright status	public domain edit applies to jurisdiction countries with 100 years pma or shorter determination method 100 years or more after author(s) death 0 references add reference public domain edit applies to jurisdiction United States of America determination method published more than 95 years ago 0 references add reference
		add value

However QuickStatements currently produces

copyright status	public domain edit applies to jurisdiction countries with 100 years pma or shorter United States of America determination method 100 years or more after author(s) death published more than 95 years ago 0 references add reference
		add value

You can get desired effect by using

Q70784 P6216 Q19652 P1001 Q30 P459 Q47246828
Q70784 P6216 Q15687061 P1001 Q60332278 P459 Q29940705

which uses public domain (Q15687061), a permanent duplicate of public domain (Q19652). All public domain (Q15687061) are automatically replaced with public domain (Q19652), see {{Autofix}} template at Property talk:P6216. When using QuickStatements always inspect the output of small test runs before doing any larger batches.

See Also

• Help:Copyrights/maintenance - page listing SPARQL queries used for adding and maintaining copyright statements.
• Help:Copyright legislations - page to model copyright legislation in wikidata
• Earlier discussions and proposals:

• File:Licensing model framework discussion.pdf (2014)
• Wikidata:Property_proposal/Archive/48#Copyright_status (2016)
• Property_talk:P275#Public_domain (2018-01)
• Wikidata_talk:WikiProject_sum_of_all_paintings#Shall_we_introduce_properties_indicating_copyright_status (2018-02)
• c:Commons talk:Structured data/Get involved/Feedback requests/First licensing consultation (2018-03)
• Wikidata:Property proposal/copyright status (2018-07)