Template:PD-Art

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This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art. The original image comprising the work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:

This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired.

This applies to the United States, Canada, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.

Note that a few countries have copyright terms longer than 70 years: Mexico has 100 years, Colombia has 80 years, and Guatemala and Samoa have 75 years. This image may not be in the public domain in these countries, which moreover do not implement the rule of the shorter term. Côte d'Ivoire has a general copyright term of 99 years and Honduras has 75 years, but they do implement that rule of the shorter term.

Under United States copyright law, originality of expression is necessary for copyright protection, and a mere photograph of an out-of-copyright work may not be protected under U.S.copyright law. This photograph was taken in the U.S. or in another country where a similar rule applies (for a list of allowable countries, see Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag#Country-specific rules).
This photographic reproduction is therefore also in the public domain.

How to use the template

See Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag.

This template is for use by the uploader of a photograph taken by somebody else to assert that the photograph can have no independent copyright as it is simply a faithful reproduction of an old, public domain, two-dimensional work of art. For this purpose, 'faithful reproduction' means a photograph taken perhaps from several metres away from the work of art, with carefully-arranged and professional lighting, filters and so on. Use of this template means that under national law such 'faithful reproduction' photographs can have no copyright, regardless of how much skill and effort went into taking the picture.

Please make sure you understand the difference between a 'faithful reproduction' in this sense and a purely mechanical copy such as a photocopy or a scan taken directly from the original. Images that are no more than mere photocopies or scans directly taken from an old original artwork can be labelled {{PD-Old}}. This template is only for use when the initial reproduction was by means of a photograph for which we have no copyright license.

The template takes one parameter to indicate why the original work of art is in the public domain (if no parameter is given, {{PD-old}} is assumed). If you use a parameter, it must correspond to a public domain tag. Do not use as a parameter a copyright license tag such as such as GFDL.

For examples of the tag in use, see Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag#Usage examples.

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