Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Azerbaijan

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

Background

The region that today is Azerbaijan was ceded by Iran to Russia in the 19th century, then became the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918, and the Azerbaijan SSR, part of the Soviet Union, in 1920. Nagorno-Karabakh, an oblast of the Azerbaijan SSR with an Armenian majority population, has been self-governing since 1988. During the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan became independent on 18 October 1991. The Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) claims independence, supported by Armenia, but has not been internationally recognised.

Azerbaijan has been a member of the Berne Convention since 4 June 1999 and the WIPO treaty since 11 April 2006.[1]

As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed the Law on Copyright and Related Rights of October 22, 1996 (as amended up to Law No. 636-IVQD of April 30, 2013) as the main copyright law enacted by the legislature of Azerbaijan.[1] WIPO holds the text of this law in their WIPO Lex database.[2] WIPO also holds the text of Law on Legal Protection of Azerbaijani Folklore Expressions of August 8, 2003 (as amended up to Law No. 638-IVQD of April 30, 2013).[3]

General rules

According to the Copyright law of 1996 as amended up to Law No. 636-IVQD of April 30, 2013,

  • Copyright to a work remains in the force through the author's lifetime and for 70 years after his death, except for the cases stipulated in Article 26 of this Law.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 25.1]
  • With works published anonymously or under a pseudonym, the duration of copyright terminates 70 years after lawful publication.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 26.1]
  • Copyright to works created in co-authorship remains in effect through the co-authors' lifetimes and for 70 years after the death of the last co-author.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 26.2]
  • Copyright to a work that was first published within 30 years after the author's death remains in effect for 70 years after the date of lawful publication.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 26.3]
  • The rights to collective works remain in effect for 70 years after the publication of such works, if they are not published after creation.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 26.4]
  • The term of protection is calculated from beginning of the year following the year in which the protection term of the legal fact occurs.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 25.2]
  • Duration of protection determined by this Law shall be applied to all works of which term of protection has not expired until this Law enters into force.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 25.3]

Not protected

Shortcut

See also: Commons:Unprotected works

The following items are not objects of copyright:

  • Official documents (laws, court decisions, other texts of legislative, administrative or judicial character) and their official translations;
  • State emblems and official signs (flags, arms, anthems, orders, monetary signs and other State symbols and official signs);
  • Folk creativity (folklore) expressions ;
  • News of day, data about various events and the facts of information character.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 7]

Collective works

The natural persons and legal entities publishing encyclopaedias, encyclopaedic dictionaries, periodic collections, and collections of scientific works, newspapers, magazines and other periodicals shall hold the exclusive rights to use such publications in their entirety. The authors of the works incorporated in such publications shall preserve the exclusive rights to use their works irrespective of the entire publication, unless otherwise stipulated by an author's contract.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 10.2]

Folklore: not free

See also: Commons:Paying public domain

Folklore expressions are protected by the Law of the Republic of Azerbaijan on Legal Protection of Azerbaijani Folklore Expressions (as amended up to Law No. 638-IVQD of April 30, 2013).

Azerbaijan folklore expressions shall mean word art works, folk music, games and dances, works of folk handicraft and applied arts (existing and not existing in a material form) created in a verbal form as well as other products of folk creative work created and protected by Azerbaijani people, its individuals and reflecting traditional artistic values, world view, hopes and wishes, characteristic features of artistic heritage of Azerbaijani people.[638-IVQD/2013 Article 1.0.1] Legal and natural persons of other states shall be entitled to use folklore expression outside the territory of the Republic of Azerbaijan in commercial purpose only with authorization of relevant executive body and with payment of fee for use. That fee shall be transferred to the account of relevant executive body and used for promotion of intellectual creativity, also safeguarding and enrichment of folklore expressions.[638-IVQD/2013 Article 6.3]

See also: Commons:Copyright tags

  • {{PD-AZ-exempt}} – for official documents (laws, court decisions, other texts of legislative, administrative or judicial character) and official translations thereof; State emblems and official signs (flags, armorial bearings, decorations, monetary signs and other State symbols and official signs); works of folklore, which have no signs of Article 5 of this law; communications concerning events and facts that have informational character.
  • {{President.az}} – The permission letter from the Press Secretary for the President of Azerbaijan is available here:
The are no restrictions on the full or partial use of textual, photographic, video and audio material featured on the official website of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan by the media outlets, internet resources and information carriers. This also applies to television channels, radio stations, newspapers, magazines, scientific publications and encyclopedias (including online encyclopedias).

All materials on the website are available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Currency

See also: Commons:Currency

  OK Monetary signs, together with other state symbols, are explicitly excluded from copyright by the 2013 Copyright law of Azerbaijan.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 7]

Please use {{PD-AZ-exempt}} for Azerbaijan currency images.

Freedom of panorama

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

  Not OK, non-commercial only: {{NoFoP-Azerbaijan}} According to the Copyright law of 1996 as amended up to Law No. 636-IVQD of April 30, 2013,

  • The following shall be permitted without the consent of the author ... to reproduce, in order to present current events by means of photography or cinematography, broadcasting, cablecasting or other public communication of works seen or heard in the course of such events to the extent justified by the informational purpose.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 19.4]
  • The reproduction, or public communication of architectural works, photographic works and works of fine art permanently located in a public place shall be permissible without the author's or other copyright owner’s consent and without paying author’s remuneration, except where the presentation of the work constitutes the main feature of the said reproduction, or public communication, if it is used for commercial purposes.[636-IVQD/2013 Article 20]

Per Commons:Licensing, noncommercial licensing is not allowed on Wikimedia Commons, hence "not OK".

Stamps

See also: Commons:Stamps

  use {{PD-AZ-exempt}}

An exception is File:1995 John Lennon..jpg.

See also

Citations

  1. a b Azerbaijan Copyright and Related Rights (Neighboring Rights). WIPO: World Intellectual Property Organization (2018). Retrieved on 2018-11-08.
  2. Law on Copyright and Related Rights (as amended up to Law No. 636-IVQD of April 30, 2013). Azerbaijan (2013). Retrieved on 2018-11-08.
  3. Law on Legal Protection of Azerbaijani Folklore Expressions (as amended up to Law No. 638-IVQD of April 30, 2013). Azerbaijan (2013). Retrieved on 2018-12-16.
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