Template talk:PD-BritishGov

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This seems more a Hoax Template to be than a serious one. I cannot find any evidence at http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/conf/dac/en/sterling/sterling.html

Then you are a liar. To quote from that source:
"Crown copyright under section 163 subsists
(a) for 125 years from the end of the year in which the work was made, or
(b) if the work is published commercially within 75 years after the end of the year in which it was made, then protection lasts for 50 years from the end of the year in which it was published (s.163(3))."
Go away troll. David Newton 11:46, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)
What does the word "commercially" mean in this context? It isn't in the template. Thue | talk 12:33, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)
It essentially means published by HMSO or another commercial publisher (like Frank Cass for official histories published currently). For photographs it does not actually have effect at the moment, but it would be a useful addition to the template to further clarify matters.
The reason it is not operative at the moment is that Crown copyright of photographs is still governed by the old rules on photograph copyright, ie it does not matter whether the phototgraph is published or unpublished: it is still out of copyright after 50 years. That changes when photographs taken after 30th June 1957 under Crown copyright protection come out of copyright. That date is when the Copyright Act 1956 came into force, which made a distinction between published and unpublished photos. After that there will be no more unpublished photos out of Crown copyright protection until 2081 under the 125 years from creation rule.
So, after the photographs taken in the first half of 1957 come out of copyright at the end of 2007, only commercially published photos will come out of copyright until 2081 when unpublished photos from the second half of 1957 emerge from copyright protection. I will make the necessary changes to the template. David Newton 13:20, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Thanks :). Doesn't clause 3 needs to say that the work must have been published commercially? If I read you correctly then items in that category can't dodge the "published commercially" clause because they aren't photos. Thue | talk 14:10, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)
No. If you read the PDF file which is linked to in the template, you will see that prior to 1957 it is only engravings that need to be published commercially to forfeit copyright protection. Photographs prior to 1957 forfeit it after 50 years whether published or not. The distinction for other artistic works, ie things like paintings and sculptures, comes from 1989 when the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 came into force. From then on they need to be distinguished in terms of commercial publication or not. Since 50 years after 1989 is 2039 somehow I'm not especially worried about that one at the moment! David Newton 14:29, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Thanks again :). Thue | talk 15:11, 24 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Contents

[edit] Duration of copyright in the UK

This template refers to the 1956 and 1988 duration of copyright in the UK, but hasn't this been increased (retroactively) to seventy years? Can't find the reference at the moment, and I'm 1000 km from the nearest UK law library... Physchim62 11:51, 22 July 2005 (UTC)

Ordinary copyrights have been increased by 20 years retrospectively. That happened in 1995. Crown copyright operates under a set of different duration rules and its length has not been increased. David Newton 13:10, 9 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] relation to {{CrownCopyright}}

Is this basically the expired version of {{CrownCopyright}}? I find it interesting that this template links to Crown copyright but doesn't actually mention it anywhere. Thanks, pfctdayelise (translate?) 00:11, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Commons template

Also, the commons template commons:Template:PD-BritishGov just says more that 50 years ago. Should this be changed to 1956, and then each January increment the year? Because unless 1956 is significant, "more than 50 years ago" actually seems a more convenient way to put it. pfctdayelise (translate?) 00:14, 19 March 2006 (UTC)

The commons template has switched back to use "1956", but they do it with an #expr statement in the template, so it doesn't need constant updating, like so: "prior to 1958". Does it seem like a good idea to change this template to match? Carl Lindberg 07:42, 18 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why "before 1 June 1957"?

Surely Crown Copyright lasts until the end of the year in which 50 years have elapsed since publication? That means that at this point, the cutoff date is 31 December 1957. Since the "50-year" cutoff now reaches a point more recent than 1 June 1957, isn't the "1 June" condition now rather irrelevant? 86.143.48.55 (talk) 03:13, 30 January 2008 (UTC)