Commons:Copyright rules by territory/East Timor

Copyright rules: East Timor Shortcut: COM:EAST TIMOR
Durations
Standard	Life + 50 years
Photograph	Publish + 25 years
Audiovisual	Publish + 50 years
Applied art	Life + 50 years
Other
Freedom of panorama	Yes
Terms run to year end	Yes
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	TLS
Treaties
WTO member	30 August 2024
URAA restoration date‌*	30 August 2024
*‌A work is usually protected in the US if it is a type of work copyrightable in the US, published after 31 December 1929 and protected in the country of origin on the URAA date.

This page provides an overview of copyright rules of East Timor (Timor-Leste) relevant to uploading works into Wikimedia Commons. Note that any work originating in East Timor must be in the public domain, or available under a free license, in both East Timor 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 East Timor, refer to the relevant laws for clarification.

Background

East Timor, the eastern part of the island of Timor, was a Portuguese colony until November 1975, when it declared independence. Indonesia invaded East Timor a few days later, and in 1976 it was declared a province of Indonesia. After a prolonged struggle for independence Indonesia relinquished control in 1999 and East Timor (Timor Leste) became a sovereign state on 20 May 2002.

Timor-Leste became a WTO member on 30 August 2024, meaning that this is the URAA restoration date.

Governing laws

As of 2025 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, did not list any laws enacted by the legislature of East Timor that directly defined IP rules. The UN (2019) similarly found no such copyright laws except for limited provisions in the Constitution and the Civil Code.

The rules applicable to Portuguese colonies or to Indonesia should be considered for works created prior to 1999. For later works, we assume that Indonesian copyright law as of 1999 applies, per a VPC discussion, that law is the Copyright Law of the Republic of Indonesia Consolidated text of law No.6/1982 As amended by law No.7/1987 and Law No.12/1987. Per its Chapter II Copyright Validity:

• Article 26 - The copyright on:
  • a. books, computer program, pamphlets, typographical arrangement of published works, and all other written works;
  • b. sermons, lecturers, addresses and other works of utterance
  • c. visual aids for educational and scientific purposes
  • d. songs or music with or without lyrics, including arts of karawitan and phonograms;
  • e. dramatic works, dances (choreographic works), puppet shows, pantomimes;
  • f. all forms of arts, such as paintings, drawings, engravings, calligraphy, carving, sculptures, collages, applied arts in the form of handy crafting;
  • g. architecture;
  • h. maps;
  • i. batik art;
  • j. translations, interpretations, adaptations, anthologies, and other works as a result of changing of form or mode

shall be protected for the life of the author and 50 (fifty) years after his death.

• Article 27 (1) - The copyright on:
  • a. computer programs;
  • b. cinematographic works;
  • c. phonograms;
  • d. performances;
  • e. broadcasting works;

shall be for 50 (fifty) years as from the first publication.

• Article 27 (2) - The copyright on a photographic work shall be for 25 (twenty five) years as from the first publication of the work.
• Article 27 (2a) - The copyright on typographical arrangement of a published work shall be for 25 (twenty five) years as from the first publication of the work.

And according to article 12, there shall be no copyright to:

• a. any result of open meetings of the Highest State Institutions and High State Institutions and other constitutional institutions
• b. laws and regulations;
• c. court decisions and judicial orders;
• d. state addresses and government official speeches;
• e. awards of arbitration boards.

On 29 November 2022, the East Timorese parliament approved its first-ever copyright law, the Law No 14/2022 (Code of Copyright and Related Rights). It came into effect in June 2023. A copy of the law in Portuguese is available at the official journal of the Republic of East Timor, at pages 19–51. An unofficial English text is provided by the World Trade Organization.

General rules

As provided by Articles 119-124 of the Law No 14/2022 (Code of Copyright and Related Rights):

• General duration: 50 years after the death of the author.
• Collaborative work: 50 years after the death of the last surviving author.
• Collective work: 50 years after the first lawful publication or disclosure ("except if the natural persons who created it were identified in the versions of the work made available to the public").
• Anonymous work (unless the author's identity is revealed): 50 years after publication or disclosure.
• Audio-visual work: 50 years after the death of the last surviving author, who may be one of the following as per Article 25: the director or the scriptwriter; for adaptation, the authors of the adaptation are also counted as co-authors.
• Computer programs: 50 years after the death of the creator, or after the first lawful publication or dissemination if the copyright is "originally granted to a person other than the creator".

Terms run on year end in accordance with Article 118.

Not protected

Shortcut

• Commons:NOP East Timor

See also: Commons:Unprotected works

• Ideas, processes, systems, operational methods, concepts, principles or discoveries are not, by themselves and as such, protected under the terms of this Code.^{[14/2022 Art. 5(2)]}

Government works

Shortcut

• Commons:GVT East Timor

See also: Commons:Government works

Generally  Not OK since the enactment of the Law No 14/2022 (Code of Copyright and Related Rights). There is no public domain exception for works of the Government of Timor-Leste. Additionally, the "systematic compilations or annotations" of official, administrative, and judicial texts (including laws and regulations) are considered as derivative works of the said government works according to Article 11 of the law, and copyright protection over these derivative works is afforded to the authors of the original or underlying works. Any exploitation or usage of the "systematic compilations or annotations" should be done in accordance with Article 112 (authorisation from the author, which is only given in writing).

Copyright tags

• {{PD-East TimorGov}} - works published by the Government of East Timor, public domain according to the Article 12 of 1982 Indonesian Copyright Law. This template only applies to works published before 28 May 2023.

Freedom of panorama

Shortcut

• COM:FOP East Timor

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

OK under the new Code of Copyright and Related Rights of 2022: {{FoP-East Timor}}.

The previous law applicable for East Timor, the 1982 Indonesian Copyright Law, did not provide a suitable freedom of panorama for free uses of images of copyrighted artistic works and architecture in public spaces.

Under the new Code of Copyright and Related Rights (2022), a freedom of panorama legal right is provided that is apparently based on the Portuguese model:

• The use of works, such as, for example, works of architecture or sculpture, made to be kept permanently in public places.^{[14/2022 Art. 129(2)(o)]}

All free uses of copyrighted works as given by Article 149, 1-3 are bound to the common provision in the succeeding paragraph reiterating the Berne three-step test: "must not affect the normal exploitation of the work, nor cause unjustified prejudice to the legitimate interests of the author."^{[14/2022 Article 129(4)]}

See also: Category:East Timorese FOP cases.

See also

• Timor Lorosa'e
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Indonesia
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Portugal

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