Wikipedia is a complex environment. The servers are in the United States, which does not include a "rule of the shorter term" making some works inadmissible even though they are in the public domain in India. There are any number of quirks in this largely perhaps outdated law.

1. Copyright and Licensing
an introduction
©
L. Shyamal
2014
Disclaimer : not to be treated as legal advice

2. History of copyright laws
•
Prior to printing - physical controls on scribes and access
– Prohibited books and censorship (eg. by the Pope in 1501)
•
Stationers’ Company - rights for the book trade (not author)
•
Statute of Anne in April 1710 (but real effect only from 1774)
– a bargain between authors, booksellers and the public
– 21 years for those already in print and 14 years for new
– Limit created the “public domain”
•
Berne Convention 1886 onwards - international agreements
•
WIPO Copyright Treaty or WCT (1996)
– automatic copyright (no registration) across signatories
– life + a minimum of 50 years
– India is a signatory
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_copyright_law

3. Some essentials
• Copyright versus patent and relation to plagiarism
• Copyright is automatic - when “fixed in a tangible medium”
• Copyright aims to protect creative expression - not ideas
• Copyright laws vary despite international agreements
• “Public Domain” works can still be restricted by
• property rights
• contractual agreements
• Complications related to
• database rights
• moral rights
• personality rights
• “freedom of panorama”
• Doctrine of first sale
• And a lot of grey areas
http://copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfm

4. Current trends
• Steady duration increases from life of author
+ 50 to 60 and now 70 years
• Complications arising from US law
- especially valid for Wikipedia as servers are located in the
US
- no to “rule of the shorter term”
• Most Copyright law amendments driven by industry
recording, movies, book publishers
not always in favour of the general public
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uruguay_Round_Agreements_Act

5. Indian Copyright Act 1957
Based on UK laws
Term of copyright in photographs - 60 years
Term of copyright in Government work - 60 years
Includes “rule of the shorter term”
http://copyright.gov.in/Documents/CopyrightRules1957.pdf

6. Licensing in the UK

7. Tax-payer’s and their rights
17 USC § 105
Right to Information Act 2005 ?
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#105

8. Some progress

9. Technological change and legal legacies
• Digital technology and the Internet challenge the
idea of “copy”
• Many “copies” are made on the wire, along the
path, by service providers and so on
• Content mixed and reused in new ways
• What constitutes fair / commercial use becomes
difficult to tell
• Q: does linking a file violate copyright?
• Q: does embedding an image on another server violate
copyright?
• Q: does an image search engine violate copyright law?

10. A need for “Freedom”
Works created by large numbers of “authors”
On Wikipedia every edit creates a derivative
4 Freedoms
• Use
• Modify
• Share
• Share modifications
Allowing commercial support
- GNU/Linux - a successful model

11. Creative Commons - A range of licensing options

12. Wikimedia Commons
Acceptable
Not-acceptable

13. What is welcome on Wikimedia Commons
You can license what you have rights on
Photographs of natural objects, illustrations made by you
2D images of 3D objects in public space (varies with country)
buildings
sculpture
People in public space
Images of objects in museum (permanent and public exhibits)
Photographs of routinely manufacture items
You can use material in the public domain
Copies of paintings or photos in public domain

14. What is not acceptable
Own photographs of a copyrighted image
Copies of copyrighted paintings
3D replicas of existing copyrighted 3D objects
People in private situations (Personality Rights)
Images of objects in special exhibits in museum (non-permanent)
Photographs of items that represent copyrighted items

15. Test yourself
• Scan of a photo of your famous grandfather from your family album
• Photo of statue at road crossing
• Photo of statue in a private collection
• Photo of an animal in the zoo
• Photo of a pet belonging to someone else
• Photo of the President of India taken from Government website
• Photo of a Rupee coin
• Scan of a 10 Rupee note
• Map of India (pre-1923)
• Survey of India - Map of India
• US Army map of India
• Google Earth screenshot
• Photograph showing Jawaharlal Nehru
(pre-1947, photographer unknown)

16. More ...
• Scan of an Indian postage stamp issued in 1972
• Scan of an Indian postage stamp issued in 1940
• Photo of a painting by M.F. Hussain (d. 2011)
• Photo of your friend standing with a painting by M.F. Hussain in
background
• Singing Happy Birthday song
• Happy birthday song used in a movie
• Painting made by an elephant(!)
• Recording of a folk song
• Recording yourself singing the lyrics of an out of copyright song
http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2013/06/economist-explains-10

17. And some more ...
• Recording of the song of a bird
• Use a copyrighted font in your document
• Trace a map made by the Survey of India
• An artistic map based on a map by the Survey of India