Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Equatorial Guinea

The Spanish colonies of Bioko and Rio Muni were united in 1926 to form the colony of Spanish Guinea. In 1959 its status was raised from "colonial" to "provincial". In 1968 Equatorial Guinea became an independent republic.

Equatorial Guinea has been a member of the Berne Convention since 26 June 1997.^[1]

As of 2024 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed the Spanish 1889 Civil Code (probably the version at the time of Equatorial Guinea's independence in 1968) as the main IP law. It was prevously alleged that the Law of January 10, 1879, on Intellectual Property applied but it has not been mentioned in the EU's IP Country Fiche, which only lists the 1963 penal code. ^[1] WIPO holds the text of this law in their WIPO Lex database.^[2]

Article 428 of the 1889 Civil Code only makes a vague statement about copyright: "The author of a literary, scientific or artistic work has the right to exploit it and dispose of it at will." ^{[1889 Article 428]} The following article states that the Law on Intellectual Property (RCL 1960, 1042) determines to whom that right belongs, the form of its exercise and the length of its duration. In cases not provided for or resolved by said Special Law, the general rules established in this Code on property will apply. ^{[1889 Article 429]} However, the mentioned 1960 law (1960, 1042) is actually a law on horizontal property which does not contain any copyright-related provisions.

The 1963 Penal Code had provisions on copyright, but the 1963 code was repealed in 2022 by a new one.^[3] The 2022 Penal Code does not appear to contain any provisions related to copyright.^[4]

Since Equatorial Guinea is a member of the Bangui Agreement, Part 1 Title 1 Article 5 states that any provisions contrary to the agreement will be repealed, and the copyright provisions are just a baseline^{[Bangui Agreement Part 1 Title 1 Article 5]}, we will assume that the Bangui Agreement (specifically Title 7 which is on copyright) applies.

Under the Bangui Agreement,

• Econonomic rights are protected for the author's life and 50 years after his death.^{[Bangui Agreement Title 7 Article 26]}
• Econonomic rights of a work of joint authorship are protected for the author's life and 50 years after his death.^{[Bangui Agreement Title 7 Article 27]}
• Anonymous and pseudonymous works are protected for 50 years after publication or 50 years after creation if it was not published within the time.^{[Bangui Agreement Title 7 Article 28]}
• Collective and audiovisual works are protected for 50 years after publication or 50 years after creation if it was not published within the time.^{[Bangui Agreement Title 7 Article 29]}
• Works of applied art are protected for 25 years from their creation.^{[Bangui Agreement Title 7 Article 30]}

See also: Commons:Currency

  OK. Bank of Central African States, which issues Central African CFA franc used in Equatorial Guinea, is based in Cameroon. Article 3c of the main IP law of Cameroon, the 2000 Copyright law, explicitly excludes banknotes and coins from copyright protection.

Please use {{PD-CA-CFA-franc}} for Central African CFA franc images.

See also: COM:CUR Cameroon

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

  Not OK. The 1889 Civil Code only listed a vague statement about copyright^{[1889 Article 428]}, the 1889 Civil Code's copyright provision relies on a law that does not contain any copyright provisions ^{[1889 Article 429]} and the Bangui Agreement has a limited FoP exception which does not allow reproduction of architecture and public art in images "if the image of the work is the main subject of such reproduction, broadcast or communication and if it is used for profit-making purposes" (in other words, incidental or not-the-main-subject inclusion only for commercially-licensed images).^{[Bangui Agreement Title 7 Article 16]}