Category:Paul Klee

Paul Klee  (1879–1940)
	Alternative names	p. klee; Klee
	Description	German painter, university teacher, visual artist and graphic artist
	Date of birth/death	18 December 1879	29 June 1940
	Location of birth/death	Münchenbuchsee	Muralto
	Work location	Munich; Bern; Weimar; Düsseldorf
	Authority control	: Q44007 VIAF: 68931085 ISNI: 0000 0001 2137 9687 ULAN: 500010493 LCCN: n79093306 NLA: 35274738 MusicBrainz: 4a09a48e-e7aa-4322-b59a-bcea29b7e140 GND: 118562827 SELIBR: 193765 SUDOC: 026950480 BNF: 11909820v NDL: 00445847 BIBSYS: 90102567 HDS: 12028 NKC: jn20000603401 BNE: XX838488 SIKART: 4000058 RKD: 44622 NLI: 000613219 WorldCat

• Paul Klee (1879–1940)

Copyright[edit]

Switzerland had a copyright term of 50 years p.m.a. until 1993, and the extension to 70 years p.m.a. made in 1993 did not restore already expired copyrights. As Paul Klee died in 1940, the copyright on his works therefore expired on January 1, 1991 in Switzerland. Copyright in countries with 70 years p.m.a. (e.g. European Union) expired on January 1, 2011. Whether works by Paul Klee published after 1922 are in the public domain in the U.S., too, therefore depends on whether the individual work in question is considered to be a work from Switzerland. This may be difficult to determine in some cases, as Klee lived for a long time in Germany, but emigrated back to Switzerland in 1933 where he then lived for the rest of his life. It can probably be assumed that works by Klee published prior to 1923 are free both in the U.S., in Switzerland and in Germany as in the rest of the EU, as well as works first published in Switzerland after 1933 (because, as Swiss works, they lost their copyright in the country of origin in 1991 and were thus not protected on the URAA date of January 1, 1996). Klee works published from 1923 to 1933 may not be in the public domain in the U.S.

Summarizing[edit]

• Switzerland has a copyright term of 50 years p.m.a. until 1993, and did not restore already expired copyrights, so Paul Klee's copyright expired there on 1991-01-01;
• The European Union (including Germany) has a copyright term of 70 years p.m.a., so Paul Klee's copyright expired there on 2011-01-01;
• The United States was not a party to the Berne Convention until 1989, and therefore has a different copyright regime for works published before 1978-01-01. For these works, copyright expires 95 years from publication or 120 years from creation, whichever is shorter. Paul Klee's last works published in Germany may be copyrighted in the United States until 2029-01-01 (1933+95), and Klee's last unpublished works made in his German period may be copyrighted until 2054-01-01 (1933+120). However, this only applies to works where the country of origin is Germany, not Switzerland.