Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Albania

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

Governing laws

Albania became an independent country in 1912 after the defeat of the Ottoman empire in the Balkan Wars.

Albania has been a member of the Berne Convention since 6 March 1994, the World Trade Organization since 8 September 2000 and the WIPO Copyright Treaty since 6 August 2005.[1]

As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Law No. 35/2016 of March 31, 2016, on Copyright and Related Rights as the main copyright law enacted by the legislature of Albania.[1] WIPO holds the text of this law in their WIPO Lex database.[2] The law applies to works that had not yet entered the public domain under the terms of the 2016 law.[35/2016 Article 7]

Wikimedia Commons holds the texts of the 1992, 2000 and 2001 laws related to copyright.[3][4][5][6]

Durations

Under Law No. 35/2016 of March 31, 2016, on Copyright and Related Rights,

  • Except where otherwise provided in this article, work are protected during the author’s life and for for 70 years after his death.[35/2016 Article 41.1]
  • The property rights of a work of co-authorship are protected until the death of the last surviving author and for 70 years after his death.[35/2016 Article 41.3]
  • The property rights of co-authorship in a work of written music are protected running for 70 years of the death of the last surviving author, the author of the text, or the composer of the musical work, when their contribution has been specially created for the use of the musical work.[35/2016 Article 41.41]
  • Audiovisual works are protected for 70 years after the death of the co-authors.[35/2016 Article 41.5]
  • Anonymous or pseudonymous works where the author remains unknown are protected for 70 years from 1 January of year following the date the work is lawfully disclosed to the public. If the work is not lawfully disclosed to the public within 70 years from creation, copyright protection ceases to exist.[35/2016 Article 41.6]
  • Property rights in collections are protected for 70 years from the day of the lawful public disclosure of the work. Where the authors of works, contributions or other materials in a collection can be identified, the terms of paragraph 1 or 3 of this Article shall apply.[35/2016 Article 41.7]

The terms of protection are calculated from 1 January of the following year of the author’s death, or where appropriate, of the first legal public disclosure of the work.[35/2016 Article 41.2]

Not protected

Shortcut

See also: Commons:Unprotected works

Under Law No. 35/2016 of March 31, 2016, on Copyright and Related Rights, the following are not protected by copyright: a. ideas, theories, concepts, discoveries and inventions of creative work, regardless of the method of interpretation, justification or expression; b. discoveries, official texts in the domain of legislation, administrative and judiciary and other official works and their collections, disclosed for the purpose of officially informing the public; c. official state symbols, symbols of organizations and public authorities, such as: the arms, the seal, the flag, the emblem, the medallion, the hallmark, the medal; ç. means of payment; d. news of the day and other news, having the character of mere items of press information; dh. Simple data and facts.[35/2016 Article 12.1]

Folklore: not free

See also: Commons:Paying public domain Folklore literary and artistic creations in their original form shall not be the subject matter of copyright, but their communication to the public is subject to the payment of remuneration, as with the communication to the public of protected copyright works. The remuneration shall be used to promote and stimulate non-profit cultural and artistic works in the respective artistic and cultural domain in accordance with the rules of distribution of remuneration of collective management agencies for copyrights and other related rights.[35/2016 Article 12.2]

See also: Commons:Copyright tags

Currency

See also: Commons:Currency

  OK {{PD-Albania-exempt}} Means of payment are not subject to copyright.[35/2016 Article 12.1ç]

Freedom of panorama

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

  OK See {{FoP-Albania}}.

Under Law No. 35/2016 of March 31, 2016, on Copyright and Related Rights, Reproduction of works permanently found in public spaces: streets, squares, parks, rest areas and other open areas that are accessible to the public is allowed without the authorization and compensation from and towards the author or copyright holder. The works cannot be reproduced in three-dimensional form. With regard to reproduction of architectural structures, this applies only to the external appearance of the architectural structure. The source and authorship of such copies shall be indicated, when this is possible.[35/2016 Article 82]

Stamps

See also: Commons:Stamps

  use {{PD-Albania-exempt}}

The Albanian Government regulation on postal stamps considers stamps as means of payment (General Provisions, Article 2: "Postal stamp is used to pay for postal services .."). Means of payment are exempt from copyright, see Not protected section above.

See also

Citations

  1. a b Albania Copyright and Related Rights (Neighboring Rights)[1], WIPO: World Intellectual Property Organization, 2018
  2. Law No. 35/2016 of March 31, 2016, on Copyright and Related Rights[2], Albania, 2016
  3. Law 7564 on Copyright (9 April 1992)
  4. Law 8594 amendments on Copyright (6 April 2000)
  5. 8630 on copyright (3 July 2000)
  6. 8826 on copyright (19 May 1992)
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