Commons:Copyright rules by territory/North Korea

Copyright rules: North Korea Shortcut: COM:DPRK
Durations
Standard	Life + 50 years
Collective	Publish + 50 years
Other
Freedom of panorama	Yes
Terms run to year end	Yes
Common licence tags	{{PD-North Korea}} {{PD-DPRKOld}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	PRK
Treaties
Berne convention	28 April 2003
URAA restoration date‌*	28 April 2003
*‌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 North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in North Korea must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both North Korea 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 North Korea, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Background

Korea was annexed by Imperial Japan in 1910. After World War II ended in 1945, Korea was divided into two zones, with the north occupied by the Soviet Union and the south occupied by the United States. In 1948, separate governments were formed in North Korea and South Korea.

North Korea has been a member of the Berne Convention since 28 April 2003.

As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Copyright Law of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (as amended by Decree No. 1532 of February 1, 2006, of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly) as the main IP law enacted by the legislature of North Korea. WIPO holds an English language version of the text of this law in their WIPO Lex database. A Korean language version is held on WikiSource. Korea.gnu.org holds the Korean language version of the 2001 Copyright Law.

Dr. Deming Liu provides an analysis on the North Korean copyright law in a 2018 scholarly essay.

Applicability

As listed by Article 9,^{[1532/2006 Article 9]} North Korean works eligible for copyright are:

• works of scientific treatises, novels and poems
• works of music
• works of theatrical art such as opera, drama, acrobatics and dance
• works of visual art such as film and television program
• works of fine arts such as painting, sculpture, industrial art, calligraphy and design
• works of photography
• works of graphic art such as map, chart, blueprint, sketch and model
• computer programs

Buildings are not specifically mentioned as applicable works. However, according to Liu (2018), "it is possible that buildings are protected as works of fine arts on the ground that they are analogous to sculpture as specifically provided for in the copyright act."

General rules

Under the Copyright Law of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (as amended by Decree No. 1532 of February 1, 2006),

• The property right to a copyrighted work shall be protected from the moment of its publication to the 50th year after the death of its author. The property right to a joint copyrighted work shall be protected from the moment of its publication to the 50th year after the death of the last survivor of the co-authors.^{[1532/2006 Article 23]}
• The property right to a copyrighted work or a copyrighted visual art work whose author is an institution, enterprise or organization shall be protected for up to 50 years from the moment of its publication.^{[1532/2006 Article 24]}
• The term of copyright protection shall be calculated from 1 of January of the year following the publication of the work or the death of its author.^{[1532/2006 Article 25]}

Not protected

Shortcut

• COM:NOP North Korea

See also: Commons:Unprotected works

• Documents for state management, current news or information data shall not be the object of copyright unless commercial purpose is pursued.^{[1532/2006 Article 12]}
• A "work whose publication, issuance, performance, broadcasting, show and exhibition is prohibited" is not protected by copyright.^{[1532/2006 Article 6]}

Copyright tags

Shortcut

• COM:TAG North Korea

See also: Commons:Copyright tags

• {{PD-North Korea}} – Public domain work whose copyright has expired
• {{PD-KPGov}} – Government or other work in the public domain
• {{PD-Korea-1910-1945}} – Work made while Korea was under Japanese occupation
• {{PD-Korea-1910-1945-photo}} – Photograph made while Korea was under Japanese occupation
• {{PD-Korea-1910-1945-film}} – Film made while Korea was under Japanese occupation

Currency

Shortcut

• COM:CUR North Korea

See also: Commons:Currency

 Not OK. According to the North Korean copyright act, documents for state management, current news or information data shall not be the object of copyright unless commercial purpose is pursued.^{[1532/2006 Article 12]} However, currencies are for commercial purposes, so currencies are not included here.

• See also: Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:Banknotes of North Korea and Commons:Deletion_requests/Files_in_Category:Money_of_North_Korea

Freedom of panorama

Shortcut

• COM:FOP North Korea

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

OK: {{FoP-North Korea}}

Under the Copyright Law of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (as amended by Decree No. 1532 of February 1, 2006), A copyrighted work may be used without the permission ... when a copyrighted work in public places is copied.^{[1532/2006 Article 32.8]}

Stamps

See also: Commons:Stamps

. According to North Korean copyright law as of 2006, "the property rights to a copyrighted work or a copyrighted visual art work whose author is an institution, enterprise or organization shall be protected for up to 50 years from the moment of its publication."^{[1532/2006 Article 24]}

If published before 1 January 1974 use {{PD-DPRKOld}}.

See also

• 조선민주주의인민공화국
• Category:North Korean FOP cases
• Category:Stamps of North Korea
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/South Korea

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