Commons:De minimis
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De minimis is a Latin expression meaning about minimal things, normally in the locution de minimis non curat lex ("The law does not concern itself with trifles"). De minimis use of a copyrighted work is such a trivial use that the consent of the copyright owner is not required.
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[edit] What is "de minimis"?
The Common Law concept known as de minimis is derived from the maxim de minimis non curat lex, often translated as "the law does not concern itself with trifles". Some technical breaches of the law are considered to be so trivial and inconsequential that a court may decide that they should not be treated as breaches at all. The concept applies to many branches of the law, but here we consider its application specifically to copyright law.
If proved in court, de minimis can be a complete defence to a copyright infringement action. It is not simply that that an infringer can get away with some things without much chance of being sued due to the high cost of litigation; rather, that if the copying is de minimis the copier is not in fact breaking the law at all.
[edit] An example
Assume we have a photograph with a copyright-protected poster in the background. There are two copyrights involved: that of the photographer and that of the poster-designer, and both may subsist independently. In taking the photograph and uploading it to Commons, the photographer will of course be making a copy of the poster design, and without consent that will generally be an infringement and hence not allowed. The fact that the photographer has created a new copyright of his/her own does not prevent the poster copyright from being infringed, and that is so even if the photograph displays a high level of originality itself.
However, if the poster is entirely incidental to the overall subject-matter of the photograph, the copying may be considered de minimis (perhaps the poster takes up a small, insignificant part of the image, is entirely out of focus compared with the main subject, or is largely hidden in the background). In other words, a court would not be quick to uphold a claim of copyright infringement just because a photographer happened to include accidentally and incidentally a copyright-protected poster.
In determining whether the copying was sufficiently trivial, the court will consider all the circumstances. So, for example, if the poster forms an essential part of the overall photographic composition, or if the photograph was taken deliberately to include the poster, there is likely to be copyright infringement, and it is no defence to say that the poster was 'just in the background'. If the existence of the poster was the reason the photograph was taken in the first place, copyright infringement cannot be avoided by additionally including within the frame more of the setting or the surrounding area.
If the existence of the poster makes the image more attractive, more usable, or liable to cause more than insignificant economic damage to the copyright owner, then a de minimis defence to a copyright-infringement action will probably fail.
It may be relevant how the image is described or classified: it will be difficult to argue de minimis if the photograph is described as illustrating "an advertising poster" and is placed within the category Advertising posters.
A useful test may be to ask whether the photograph would be as good or as useful if the poster were to be masked out. If no, then it is difficult to argue that the poster is actually de minimis, even if the poster is small and is "in the background".
[edit] Country-specific laws
[edit] Canada
Subsection 30.7 of the Canadian Copyright Act, 1985 states:
It is not an infringement of copyright to incidentally and not deliberately
(a) include a work or other subject-matter in another work or other subject-matter; or
(b) do any act in relation to a work or other subject-matter that is incidentally and not deliberately included in another work or other subject-matter.
[edit] Czech Republic
§38c of Czech Copyright Act says:
§ 38c Nepodstatné vedlejší užití díla
Do práva autorského nezasahuje ten, kdo náhodně užije dílo v souvislosti se zamýšleným hlavním užitím jiného díla nebo prvku.
§ 38c Incidental Use of a Work
Copyright is not infringed by anybody who uses a work incidentally, in connection with an intended primary use of another work or element.
[edit] European Union
The Copyright Directive (Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society; text of the directive) allows for de minimis exception in Art. 5(3)(i):
Member States may provide for exceptions or limitations to the rights provided for in Articles 2 and 3 in the following cases: […] incidental inclusion of a work or other subject-matter in other material
under the generic conditions of Art. 5(5):
The exceptions and limitations provided for in paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 shall only be applied in certain special cases which do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work or other subject-matter and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the rightholder.
[edit] Finland
§25 (24.3.1995/446) of Finnish copyright law:
Taideteosten käyttäminen (14.10.2005/821)
Julkistetuista taideteoksista saa ottaa tekstiin liittyviä kuvia:
1) arvostelevaan tai tieteelliseen esitykseen; sekä
2) sanomalehteen tai aikakauskirjaan selostettaessa päiväntapahtumaa, edellyttäen ettei teosta ole valmistettu sanomalehdessä tai aikakauskirjassa toisinnettavaksi.
Kun taideteoksen kappale on tekijän suostumuksella myyty tai muutoin pysyvästi luovutettu, taideteoksen saa sisällyttää valokuvaan, elokuvaan tai televisio-ohjelmaan, jos toisintamisella on valokuvassa, elokuvassa tai televisio-ohjelmassa toisarvoinen merkitys.
Translation (not legal) of §25:
Usage of artworks (14.10.2005/821)
Images of published artworks, where relevant to the text, may be included:
1) in a critical or scientific presentation; and
2) in a newspaper or periodical to illustrate news of the day, provided that the work has not been made for the purpose of being reproduced in a newspaper or periodical.
When a copy of an artwork has been sold or otherwise permanently given away with the consent of the author, the artwork may be included in a photograph, motion picture or television program, if the reproduction is of secondary importance to the photograph, motion picture or television program.
[edit] Germany
§ 57 UrhG says:
§ 57 Unwesentliches Beiwerk
Zulässig ist die Vervielfältigung, Verbreitung und öffentliche Wiedergabe von Werken, wenn sie als unwesentliches Beiwerk neben dem eigentlichen Gegenstand der Vervielfältigung, Verbreitung oder öffentlichen Wiedergabe anzusehen sind.
Rough (linguistic, not legal) translation:
§ 57 Incidental works
Copying, propagation, and public reproduction of works is permitted if they are to be considered incidental to the actual object of copying, propagation, or public reproduction.
[edit] Israel
An unofficial translation of the 2007 Copyright Act says:
22 Incidental Use of a Work
An incidental use of a work by way of including it in a photographic work, in a cinematographic work or in a sound recording, as well as the use of a such work in which the work was thus incidentally contained, is permitted; In this matter the deliberate inclusion of a musical work, including its accompanying lyrics, or of a sound recording embodying such musical work, in another work, shall not be deemed to be an incidental use.
[edit] Singapore
Under section 10(1) of the Copyright Act (Cap. 63, 2006 Rev. Ed.) of Singapore, unless a contrary intention appears:
- a reference to the doing of an act in relation to a work or other subject-matter shall be read as including a reference to the doing of that act in relation to a substantial part of the work or other subject-matter; and
- a reference to a reproduction, adaptation or copy of a work shall be read as including a reference to a reproduction, adaptation or copy of a substantial part of the work, as the case may be.
Therefore, acts done in relation to insubstantial parts of a work or other subject-matter do not breach copyright.
[edit] United Kingdom
Section 31 of the UK Copyright, Designs and patents Act 1988, as subsequently amended in 2003, states that:
Copyright in a work is not infringed by its incidental inclusion in an artistic work, sound recording, film, or broadcast.
"Artistic work", as defined within the act, includes photographs.
[edit] United States
The United States courts interpret the de minimis defence in three distinct ways:
- Where a technical violation is so trivial that the law will not impose legal consequences;
- Where the extent of copying falls below the threshold of substantial similarity (always a required element of actionable copying); and
- In connection with fair use (not relevant here, since Commons does not allow fair use images).
It is the first of these that is often of particular concern on Commons.
[edit] An example under Civil Law
Civil Law countries may not apply the de minimis principle as set out above, but often have some alternative legal mechanism whereby similar trivial infringements can be ignored. For photographs taken in public places this may be done as part of the rules relating to Freedom of panorama. For example, French case law admits an exception if the copyrighted artwork is "accessory compared to the main represented or handled subject" (CA Paris, 27 octobre 1992, Antenne 2 c/ société Spadem, « la représentation d'une œuvre située dans un lieu public n'est licite que lorsqu'elle est accessoire par rapport au sujet principal représenté ou traité »). Thus, ruling #567 of March 15, 2005 of the Court of Cassation denied the right of producers of works of arts installed in a public plaza over photographs of the whole plaza:
Because the Court has noticed that, as it was shown in the incriminated images, the works of Mr X... and Z... blended into the architectural ensemble of the Terreaux plaza, of which it was a mere element, the appeals court correctly deduced that this presentation of the litigious work was accessory to the topic depicted, which was the representation of the plaza, so that the image did not constitute a communication of the litigious work to the public
(...)Attendu qu’ayant relevé que, telle que figurant dans les vues en cause, l’oeuvre de MM. X... et Z... se fondait dans l’ensemble architectural de la place des Terreaux dont elle constituait un simple élément, la cour d’appel en a exactement déduit qu’une telle présentation de l’oeuvre litigieuse était accessoire au sujet traité, résidant dans la représentation de la place, de sorte qu’elle ne réalisait pas la communication de cette oeuvre au public (...)
French case law states that the said artwork must not be intentionally included as an element of the setting: its presence in the picture must be unavoidable (CA Versailles, 26 janvier 1998, Sté Movie box c/ Spadem et a.):
Can be considered as an illicit representation of a statue by Maillol, the broadcasting of a commercial in which it appears, as it was not included in a film sequence shot in a natural setting—which would explain the brief, and non-essential to the main subject, appearance of the sculpture, which is set in the Tuileries gardens—but used as an element of the setting (« Constitue une représentation illicite d'une statue de Maillol la diffusion d'un film publicitaire dans laquelle elle figure, alors qu'elle a été utilisée, non pas dans une séquence tournée en décor naturel, ce qui justifierait une apparition fugace de la sculpture, placée dans le jardin des Tuileries, totalement accessoire au sujet traité, mais comme un élément du décor. »).
[edit] Crops of de minimis images
Since an image which is allowable under the de minimis principle must of necessity include some copyright material, it follows that such images cannot be cropped at will. For the case of a photograph which includes a poster, even if the photographer has a defence against infringement on the de minimis principle, that does not negate the original poster-designer's copyright. If someone takes the photograph and crops it so that only the poster remains, the de minimis defence is no longer available, as the poster design then becomes an essential part of the crop. So, the cropped version infringes and cannot be allowed on Commons.
Note that the mere fact that an image allowable under de minimis may be cropped to create one which is not, does not suggest that the original work is not de minimis after all. Even very high resolution images, in which incidental details can be reliably recovered and magnified, should be viewed as a whole from a normal viewing distance when considering whether de minimis applies.
[edit] Examples
See also: Commons:Threshold of originality
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Downtown Burj Dubai and Business Bay (DR)
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Burj Khalifa; "for being [a] panorama[…]" (DR)
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maybe a series of photographs exhibited in a museum → de minimis (DR)
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artwork by Escher in the center (DR)
[edit] See also
- Commons:Freedom of panorama
- A discussion about de minimis in videos
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