Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Romania

Copyright rules: Romania Shortcut: COM:ROMANIA
Durations
Standard	Life + 70 years
Other
Freedom of panorama	No
Common licence tags	{{PD-Romania}} {{PD-RO-1956}} {{PD-RO-photo}} {{PD-RO-exempt}} {{PD-user-ro}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	ROU
Treaties
Berne convention	1 January 1927
WTO member	1 January 1995
URAA restoration date‌*	1 January 1996
WIPO treaty	6 March 2002
*‌A work is usually protected in the US if it is a type of work copyrightable in the US, published after 31 December 1928 and protected in the country of origin on the URAA date.

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

Governing laws

Romania has been a member of the Berne Convention since 1 January 1927, the World Trade Organization since 1 January 1995 and the WIPO Copyright Treaty since 6 March 2002.

As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Law No. 8 of March 14, 1996 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights as the main IP law enacted by the legislature of Romania. WIPO holds the text of this law in their WIPO Lex database. The 1996 law was not retroactive:

• Legal acts concluded under the former legislation shall produce all their effects according to that legislation, with the exception of clauses that provide for the transfer of the utilization rights in any future works that the author might yet create.^{[8/1996 Art.149(1)]}
• The duration of the economic rights in works created by authors deceased before the entry into force of this Law and for which the term of protection, calculated according to the procedures of the prior legislation, has not expired shall be extended up to the limit of the term provided for in this Law. Such extension shall come into effect only since the entry into force of the present law.^{[8/1996 Art.149(3)]}

General rules

Under Law No. 8 of March 14, 1996 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights,

• The economic rights last for the author’s lifetime, and after his death for 70 years, regardless of the date on which the work was legally disclosed to the public.^{[8/1996 Art.25(1)]}
• The person who, after the copyright protection has expired, legally discloses for the first time a previously unpublished work enjoys protection for 25 years from the first legal disclosure to the public.^{[8/1996 Art.25(2)]}
• The term of the economic rights in works legally disclosed to the public under a pseudonym or without a mention of the author’s name is 70 years from the date on which they were disclosed to the public.^{[8/1996 Art.26(1)]}
  • Where the author’s identity is revealed to the public before the term mentioned above expires, or the pseudonym used by the author leaves no doubt about his identity, the provisions of Article 25 (1) shall apply.^{[8/1996 Art.26(2)]}
• The term of the economic rights in works of joint authorship shall be 70 years from the death of the last surviving co-author.^{[8/1996 Art.27(1)]}
  • Where the contributions of the co-authors are distinct, the term of the economic rights in each such contribution shall be 70 years from the death of the author thereof.^{[8/1996 Art.27(2)]}
• The term of the economic rights in collective works shall be 70 years from the date of disclosure of the works. Where disclosure does not occur for 70 years following the creation of the works, the term of the economic rights shall expire 70 years after the said creation.^{[8/1996 Art.28]}
• The terms above are calculated from 1 January of the year following the author’s death or the date on which the work was disclosed to the public, as the case may be.^{[8/1996 Art.32]}

The previous law on authors' rights in Romania was Decree no. 321 of June 18, 1956, published on June 27, 1956. It had much shorter copyright terms (see articles 6 and 7). The earlier copyright law was the law on authors' rights from June 28, 1923, itself modified by the law no. 596 from July 24, 1946, the decree no. 19 from February 16, 1951, the decree no. 428 from November 13, 1952, and the decree no. 591 of December 17, 1955.

The 1923 law had a copyright term of 30 years after the author's death if heirs existed, the 1956 law had a general term of 50 years after the author's death or 50 years from publication for works created by a legal entity. Shorter terms in the 1956 law existed for authors of entries in encyclopedias and dictionaries (20 years from publication), and for photographers (5 years from publication for individual artistic photos, 10 years for a series of such). These terms were not extended by the new law for works that were already in the public domain, putting the work of any author who died before January 1st, 1946 in the public domain. However, it's been more than 70 years since then, so newer works may also be in the public domain.

Not protected

Shortcut

• COM:NOP Romania

See also: Commons:Unprotected works

Under Law No. 8 of March 14, 1996 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights, the following shall not benefit from the legal protection accorded to copyright:^{[8/1996 Art.9]}

(a) ideas, theories, concepts, scientific discoveries, proceedings, functioning methods or mathematical concepts as such and inventions, contained in a work, whatever the manner of the adoption, writing, explanation or expression thereof;

(b) official texts of a political, legislative, administrative or judicial nature, and official translations thereof;

(c) official symbols of the State, public authorities and organizations, such as armorial bearings, seals, flags, emblems, shields, badges and medals;

(d) means of payment;

(e) news and press information;

(f) simple facts and data.

Also, the photographs of letters, deeds, documents of any kind, technical drawings and other similar papers do not benefit from protection.^{[8/1996 Art.85(2)]}

Copyright tags

Shortcut

• COM:TAG Romania

See also: Commons:Copyright tags

• {{PD-RO-exempt}} – for: (a) the ideas, theories, concepts, scientific discoveries, procedures, working methods, or mathematical concepts as such and inventions, contained in a work, whatever the manner of the adoption, writing, explanation or expression thereof; (b) official texts of a political, legislative, administrative or judicial nature, and official translations thereof; (c) official symbols of the State, public authorities and organizations, such as armorial bearings, seals, flags, emblems, shields, badges and medals; (d) means of payment; (e) news and press information; (f) simple facts and data; (g) the photographs of letters, deeds, documents of any kind, technical drawings and other similar papers.
• {{PD-RO-photo}} – for: (a) photographs series taken before 1986; (b) photographs taken before 1991.
• {{PD-RO-1956}} – for: (a) encyclopedias, dictionaries, corpora issued before 1976; (b) artistic photographs series taken before 1986; (c) artistic photographs taken before 1991.
• {{PD-Romania}} – for: works which have expired in Romania prior to 1996 (usually prior to 1946) under the terms specified in the 1956 law
• {{PD-user-ro|username}} – for works released into the public domain by their creators when the creators are Romanian Wikipedia users.

Currency

Shortcut

• COM:CUR Romania

See also: Commons:Currency

OK Article 9(d) of the Romanian copyright law of March 14, 1996 excludes means of payment from copyright.

Use {{PD-money-Romania}} to tag reproductions of Romanian currency.

Freedom of panorama

Shortcut

• COM:FOP Romania

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

 Not OK, non-commercial only. Under Law No. 8 of March 14, 1996 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights,

• The following uses of a work already disclosed to the public shall be permitted without the author’s consent and without payment of remuneration, provided that such uses conform to proper practice, are not at variance with the normal exploitation of the work and are not prejudicial to the author or to the owners of the exploitation rights:^{[8/1996 Art.33(1)]}
• ... the reproduction, to the exclusion of any means involving direct contact with the work, distribution or communication to the public of the image of an architectural work, work of plastic art, photographic work or work of applied art permanently located in a public place, except where the image of the work is the main subject of such reproduction, distribution or communication, and if it is used for commercial purposes;^{[8/1996 Art.33(1)(f)]}

Wikimedia Commons does not allow content that is restricted to non-commercial uses only, see Commons:Licensing#Acceptable licenses for more information.

Note

"Copyright protection expires 70 years after the death of the original author (who is defined as the creator or designer) here. On January 1st of the following year (ie. January 1 of the 71st Year), freely licensed images of the author's 3D works such as sculptures, buildings, bridges or monuments are now free and can be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. The lack of Freedom of Panorama is no longer relevant here for states with no formal FOP since the author's works are now copyright free."

Stamps

See also: Commons:Stamps

use {{PD-RO-exempt}}.

According to the Romanian Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law no. 8/1996 of 14 March 1996 with further amendments Chapter 3 Article 9 "means of payment" shall not benefit from the legal protection accorded to copyright; therefore images of stamps are deemed to be in the public domain. Further, the Romanian law on postal services from 6 March 2013 defines postal stamp as "paper of value issued and put into circulation exclusively under the authority of the state, as an attribute of its sovereignty", implying that Romania postal stamps are "official symbols of the State, public authorities and organizations", which are not protected by the Romanian copyright.

See also

• România
• Category:Romanian FOP cases
• Category:License tags of Romania
• Category:Postage stamps of Romania

Citations

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