Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Kosovo

Copyright rules: Kosovo Shortcut: COM:KOSOVO
Durations
Standard	Life + 70 years
Anonymous	Publish + 70 years
Other
Freedom of panorama	Yes
Terms run to year end	Yes
Common licence tags	{{PD-Kosovo-exempt}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	~
Treaties

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

Background

Kosovo was formerly the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo, an autonomous province of Serbia. The Kosovo War of 1998 and 1999 resulted in the establishment of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) on 10 June 1999 by United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008.

Despite Kosovo having its own Assembly, ultimate responsibility for the administration of the territory lies with the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo, who leads the UNMIK.

Governing laws

As of 2024, the governing copyright law in the Republic of Kosovo is the Law No. 08/L-205 on Copyright and Related Rights, which came into effect on 27 October 2023, fifteen days after its publication in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Kosovo. The law is heavily patterned on the European Union standards. The website of the Official Gazette holds the digital copies of the law.

Law No. 08/L-205 repealed the Law No. 04/L-065 on Copyright and Related Rights (2011) and its two subsequent amendments, Law No. 05/L-047 (2016) and Law No. 06/L-120 (2019).^{[2023 Art.146]} This 2011 law, in turn, repealed the Law No. 2004/45 on Copyright and Related Rights (2007).^{[2011 Art.205]}

General

According to the Law No. 08/L-205 on Copyright and Related Rights,

• The economic rights and the rights to remuneration provided for in this Law for works shall be protected throughout the lifetime of the author and for 70 years after his death computed from January 1 of the year following that of his death.^{[2023 Art.65.1]}
• The economic rights in a work of co-authorship, shall be protected until the death of the last surviving joint author and, after his death, for 70 years computed from January 1 of the year following that of his death.^{[2023 Art.65.2]}
• The economic rights in an audio-visual work shall be protected for seventy (70) years computed from January 1 of the year following the year of the death of the last of the following co- authors to survive: the principal director; the author of the scenario; the author of the dialogue; the composer of the music specifically created for use in the audio-visual work.^{[2023 Art.65.3]}
• The economic rights in an anonymous or pseudonymous work shall be protected for 70 years computed from January 1 of the year following that of its lawful making the work available to the public. Where such a work is not made lawfully available to the public within 70 of its creation, the copyright protection shall terminate. However, when a pseudonym adopted by the author leaves no doubt as to his identity, the provisions of paragraph 1. of this Article shall apply. The provisions of paragraph 1. of this Article shall apply also where the author of an anonymous or pseudonymous work reveals his identity or if his identity becomes obvious during that period of time.^{[2023 Art.65.4]}
• For the term of protection of the economic rights in collective works, the provisions of paragraph 4. of this Article shall apply. However, where the authors of contributions to the collective work may be identified, in respect of those contributions, the provisions of paragraph 1. or 2. of this Article apply, respectively.^{[2023 Art.65.5]}
• Where a work is published in volumes, parts, installments, issues or episodes and the term of protection runs from the time when the work was lawfully made available to the public, the terms of protection provided for in paragraphs 1. to 5. of this Article shall run for each such item separately.^{[2023 Art.65.6]}

Not protected

Shortcut

• COM:NOP Kosovo

See also: Commons:Unprotected works

The following works do not have copyright protection and are thus in the public domain^{[2023 Art.8]}:

• Official texts of a legislative, administrative and judicial nature.^{[2023 Art.8.1]}
• Official translations of such texts.^{[2023 Art.8.1]}
• Ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts (but only to their original expressions).^{[2023 Art.8.2]}
• Expressions of folklore.^{[2023 Art.8.2]}
• News of the day, mere facts and data as such (but only to their original presentation).^{[2023 Art.8.2]}
• Different information that have the character of ordinary media reports can be reproduced only after at least 12 hours have elapsed from their publication.^{[2023 Art.8.2]}

UNMIK documents

According to the United Nations "Addendum on Copyright in United Nations Publications: General Principles, Practice and Procedure", para. 2, the following UN documents are in the public domain:

(a) Official Records: a series of printed publications relating to the proceedings of organs or conferences of the United Nations. They include verbatim or summary records, documents or check-lists of documents, issued in the form of annexes to those records, including periodic supplements, such as the quarterly ones of the Security Council; and reports to those organs of their subordinate or affiliated bodies, compilations of resolutions, certain reports of the Secretary-General and other selected publications, which are issued in the form of supplements;

(b) United Nations documents: written material officially issued under a United Nations document symbol, regardless of the form of production, although, in practice, the term is applied mainly to material offset from typescript and issued under a masthead. The term also applies to written material issued simultaneously or sequentially in the form of documents and publications;

(c) Public information material: publications, periodicals, brochures, pamphlets, press releases, flyers, catalogues and other materials designed primarily to inform about United Nations activities. The term does not include public information that is offered for sale, which may be subject to copyright registration.

UNMIK documents of the above nature are therefore in the public domain.

Copyright tags

Shortcut

• COM:TAG Kosovo

See also: Commons:Copyright tags

• {{PD-KosovoGov}} – for public domain Kosovar official works, state symbols, stamps, money etc.

Freedom of panorama

Shortcut

• COM:FOP Kosovo

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

OK, {{FoP-Kosovo}}. The freedom of panorama provision of the previous laws, Article 54 of Law No. 2004/45 (2007) and Article 53 of Law No. 04/L-065 (2011), only permitted non-commercial uses of works found in public spaces.

The freedom of panorama provision of the new law (Law No. 08/L-205) is patterned after the European standards:

• It shall be permitted without the consent of the author or other holder of copyright and without payment of remuneration:...use of works, such as works of architecture or sculpture, made to be located permanently in public places.^{[2023 Art.49.1.12]}

See also

• Kosova / Косово
• Category:License tags of Kosovo
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Serbia
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United Nations
• Category:Kosovar FOP cases

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