Hi Tom,



I spent a long time researching this when we digitized our collection of pre-1945 Russian maps. Janice Pilch<[log in to unmask]> at Rutgers was a great help to me. I’ll paste her two responses below. Long story short: It’s complicated. At IU, we felt comfortable enough to make the maps available on the web, but not to claim wholeheartedly that they are in the public domain. Please feel free to email me directly if you have other questions, but Janice would probably be the best person to ask.







  1.

From Theresa Quill:

According to a librarian at  the National Library of Russia, materials published before 1942 are not covered under Russian copyright law. For our library, that means most of  our Soviet Military Topos can be digitized!!<



This is completely inaccurate. The Russian copyright terms are more varied and complex.



Current Russian copyright law has a general copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years. For joint authorship the term is set from the death of the last surviving author. For works published anonymously or pseudonymously, the term is 70 years from date of publication, unless the author is identified. For works published posthumously the term is 70 years from publication, if published within 70 years of the death of the author. For works of individuals who were politically rehabiliated, the term is set from the year after the date of rehabilitation.



There is an additional 4 years of copyright protection for individuals who served or worked in WWII.



It's not a simple matter of subtracting 70 from 2013 to reach a date of 1943 as a start date of public domain in the RF. The individual at the Russian National Library has made a mistake. Aside from this, the copyright terms in the Russian copyright law are not the terms set in the U.S. copyright law for foreign works, and cannot be applied directly to works being used/digitized in the U.S. Peter has explained this nicely, as does his wonderful chart.



My advice is not to build any assumptions based on a set year for the public domain concerning Russian works. There are too many variables to consider, in particular the issue of copyright restoration in the U.S.



There is another reason to be careful- in the Soviet Union, maps were published in the 15 republics that are now separate countries, with their own copyright laws and copyright relations with the U.S. Everything in this message is about works first published only in the Russian Republic (RSFSR), not in any other- different laws apply for works first published in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc.



2. From Pamela Enrici:

I thought the 1926 date was applicable for Soviet/Russian scores. >



I'm not sure why the date 1926 is being used. The U.S. date of 1923 may be relevant in some cases, but 1926 has no relevance. If a map was first published in Russia before 1923 in Russia, it will be in the public domain in the U.S., as a U.S. imprint would be. Unpublished maps have different terms in the U.S., as outlined in Peter Hirtle's chart.



But it's important to keep in mind the global public domain. When you are digitizing and making works available globally, remember that U.S. law applies only within the borders of the U.S. A work could be in the public domain in the U.S. but still copyrighted in another country, including its country of origin. For example, a Soviet map published in 1922 by an author who was politically disgraced and then rehabilitated in 1990 is in the public domain in the U.S. but protected in the Russian Federation through 2060 or 2064. This is an unusual example, but it illustrates the problem of generalizing.



3. From Bonna Boettcher:

Tis one struck me an interesting and potentially contradictory.  Or does it only apply to maps?<



Peter correctly explains that maps fall under the general terms of copyright protection in the Russian law. However, since I wrote the articles that Peter cites, Russia extended its copyright terms from 50 to 70 years (in 2004), and also completely amended its copyright law (in 2008) . The current copyright law is Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. A current unofficial translation is on the WIPO site,

http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/details.jsp?id=6775

http://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text.jsp?file_id=277674



I agree with Peter that Russian maps could be administrative texts but they are not necessarily administrative texts in the public domain. The quote provided by Peter to my 2004 article is no longer valid, because of the new RF law. The formulation on works not protected by copyright is in Article 1259 of the current law.



4. From Peter Hirtle:

Peter correctly explains that "the key issue is what was in the public domain in Russian on 1 January 1996.  If a Russian work published after 1922 was not in the public domain in Russia on that date, then its copyright was restored in the US and will last for 95 years from publication (with some exceptions outlined in the copyright chart)."



The implementation of the 2008 RF law involving repealing all previous RF copyright laws, as well as the 1964 RSFSR Civil Code. But it was the previous 1993 law that was in effect at the time that copyright restoration went into effect in the U.S. for RF works. If a work had not fallen out of copyright in the RF as of January 1, 1996 through expiry of term of protection under the 1993 law (based on 50- or 54- year terms from life of author or date of publication), it was restored in the U.S.



And so- as you can see this is much more complicated than thinking that materials published in Russia before 1942 are no longer protected under Russian copyright law.



5. Stephen Fishman really made a mistake. I can't figure out what he was thinking at all. It is completely inaccurate, to be ignored.



6. Here is an example of how to do an assessment of a copyright term of a map. Because of the "implementation" issue, there is still room for interpretation. But in my opinion, this is how it should be.



Let's say the map is anonymous, as many were, and you can't figure who the cartographer was, and it was published in 1940. The 1993 RF law had a term of life plus 50 years from publication for an anonymous work. (That law applied in the post-Soviet RF). It expired in the RF in 1990 and thus was not restored in the U.S. and is in the PD in the U.S. [Some might argue that the term of 70 years should be used, as the RF laws previous to 2008 were revoked, but I disagree- that is a matter for another discussion].



For same map published in 1940, if you identify the cartographer as an individual who died in 1960, the work was protected in Russia through 2010 or 2014. [possibly 2030 or 2034 under a different interpretation, for a different discussion]. Thus it was protected in the RF on January 1, 1996 and was restored in the U.S. for the full copyright term for a work first published in 1940- 95 years from publication. It is protected in the U.S. through 2035.



Enough for today! In summary, you should disregard the incorrect info provided by well meaning people and accept that the situation is more complicated, that there is no "green light"  to digitize the works based on a single date establishing the Russian public domain.



Please feel free to forward this message to anyone interested!



All best wishes,



Janice Pilch





From: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>" on behalf of Tom Brittnacher

Reply-To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>"

Date: Monday, January 23, 2017 at 2:33 PM

To: "[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>"

Subject: Soviet military maps and copyright



Has anyone dealt with Soviet military maps from a copyright perspective, such as when reproducing maps or making map scans available online?  What is your interpretation of copyright law regarding Soviet materials?  Although they didn't sign the Berne Convention, they became a signatory of the Universal Copyright Convention in 1973.  This stuff is usually best left to copyright lawyers, but in the meantime, are there any thoughts?

Thanks,

Tom



--

Tom Brittnacher

Geospatial Data Curator



UCSB Library

University of California

Santa Barbara, CA  93106-9010

(805)893-2366

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