Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Dominica

Copyright rules: Dominica Shortcut: COM:DOMINICA
Durations
Standard	Life + 70 years
Anonymous	Create/publish + 50 years
Audiovisual	Create/publish + 50 years
Collective	Create/publish + 50 years
Applied art	Create + 25 years
Other
Freedom of panorama	No
Terms run to year end	Yes
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	DMA
Treaties
Berne convention	7 August 1999
WTO member	1 January 1995
URAA restoration date‌*	1 January 1996
*‌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.
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This page provides an overview of copyright rules of Dominica relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in Dominica must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both Dominica 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 Dominica, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Great Britain took possession of Dominica in 1763. The island republic gained independence in 1978.

Dominica has been a member of the World Trade Organization since 1 January 1995 and the Berne Convention since 7 August 1999.^[1]

As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed the Copyright Act 2003 (Act 5 of 2003) as the main copyright law enacted by the legislature of Dominica.^[1] WIPO holds the text of this law in their WIPO Lex database.^[2] The law repealed the Copyright Act Chap. 78:41 (1919), which focused on modified penalties for infringing uses, with the U.K. Copyright Act 1911 as the basis. The 2003 Act's transitional provision on the use of works: "An act done before the coming into force of this Act shall not be an infringement of copyright or rights in a performance conferred by this Act if that act would not, but for the passing of this Act, have constituted an infringement."^{[2003 Section 108(4)]}

Under the 2003 Copyright Act,

• Subject to the provisions of this section, copyright in a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work are protected during the life of the author and for 70 years after his death.^{[2003 Section 11(1)]}
• For a work of joint authorship, the economic rights are protected during the life of the last surviving author and for 70 years after his death.^{[003 Section 11(2)]}
• For a collective work, other than a work of applied art, and for an audiovisual work, the economic rights are protected for 50 years from the date on which the work was either made, first made available to the public, or first published, whichever date is the latest.^{[2003 Section 11(3)]}
• For a work published anonymously or under a pseudonym, the economic rights are protected for 50 years from the date on which the work was either made, first made available to the public or first published, whichever date is the latest.^{[2003 Section 11(4)]}
• For a computer-generated work, the copyright expires 50 years from the year in which the work was made.^{[2003 Section 11(5)]}
• For a work of applied art the economic rights are protected for 25 years from the making of the work.^{[2003 Section 11(6)]}

Every period provided for under the preceding subsections shall run to the end of the calendar year in which it would otherwise expire.^{[2003 Section 11(7)]}

• Copyright in a sound recording or film expires at the end of 50 years from the calendar year in which it was made, or where it is made available to the public before the end of that period, at the end of 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which it is so made available.^{[2003 Section 12(1)]}
• Copyright in a broadcast or cable programme expires at the end of 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the broadcast was made or the programme was included in a cable programme service.^{[2003 Section 13(1)]}
• Copyright in a work made by or under the direction of the State expires 70 years from the end of the year in which it was made.^{[2003 Section 20(3)]}
• No copyright subsists in any official text of a legislative, administrative or legal nature, or any translation thereof.^{[2003 Section 21]}

See also: Commons:Paying public domain

"Expression of folklore" means a group-oriented and tradition based creation of a group or individual, which is of unknown authorship, and which reflects the standards, values, cultural and social identity of a community, as transmitted orally, or by other means, and includes folk tales, folk poetry, and folk riddles; folk songs and instrumental folk music; folk dances and folk plays; production of folk art, in particular, drawings, paintings, carvings, sculptures, pottery, terracotta, mosaics, woodwork, metal ware, jewelry, handicrafts, costumes and indigenous textiles.^{[2003 Section 2]}

Collections of expressions of folklore are protected as works provided that such collections are original by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents.^{[2003 Section 6(1)]} Protection of these collections shall be without prejudice to any protection of a pre-existing work or expression of folklore incorporated in or utilized for the making of such a work.^{[2003 Section 6(1)]} The rights of the owner in respect of expressions of folklore shall vest in the State to the same extent as if the State had been the original creator of such expressions.^{[2003 Section 18(8)]}

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

 Not OK. The only reference in the 2003 Copyright Act appears to be

• The following acts shall be permitted ... for the purpose of reporting current events, the reproduction and the broadcasting or other communication to the public of short excerpts of a work seen or heard in the course of such events, to the extent justified by the purpose.^{[2003 Section 69(b)]}

See also: Commons:Stamps

Under the 2003 Copyright Act, copyright in a work made by or under the direction of the State expires 70 years from the end of the year in which it was made.^{[2003 Section 20(3)]}