Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Slovenia

Copyright rules: Slovenia Shortcut: COM:SLOVENIA
Durations
Standard	Life + 70 years
Anonymous	Publish + 70 years
Other
Freedom of panorama	No
Terms run to year end	Yes
Common licence tags	{{PD-Slovenia}} {{PD-Slovenia-exempt}}
ISO 3166-1 alpha-3	SVN
Treaties
Berne convention	17 June 1930 (as inherited from Yugoslavia)
WTO member	30 July 1995
URAA restoration date‌*	1 January 1996
WIPO treaty	6 March 2002
*‌A work is usually protected in the US if it is a type of work copyrightable in the US, published after 31 December 1928 and protected in the country of origin on the URAA date.

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

Background

Slovenia was part of Austria-Hungary until October 1918, when it became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. This became the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929, and the Republic of Yugoslavia in 1945. Slovenia became independent of Yugoslavia in June 1991.

Slovenia has been a member of the Berne Convention since 17 June 1930 as inherited from the former Yugoslavia, to which the declaration of continued application made on 12 June 1996, the World Trade Organization since 30 July 1995 and the WIPO Copyright Treaty since 6 March 2002.

While part of Yugoslavia, Slovenian works were covered by the 1978 Yugoslav Copyright Act. The Slovenian Intellectual Property Office holds an English-language version of the act as in force from 13 January 2007. The Official Gazette holds the Slovene original of the consolidated act as of 2007. This was replaced by the Copyright and Related Rights Act of March 30, 1995.

As of 2018 the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), an agency of the United Nations, listed Copyright and Related Rights Act (as amended up to October 22, 2016) as the main IP law enacted by the legislature of Slovenia. WIPO holds the Slovenian language unofficial consolidated text No. 12 of this law in their WIPO Lex database. It is the most recent version of the Copyright and Related Rights Act of March 30, 1995.

Also relevant is the 2006 Protection of Documents and Archives and Archival Institutions Act.

General rules

• Works of authors who died more than 70 years ago (in 1953 or earlier) are public domain in Slovenia. Works of authors who died later (in 1954 or later) are copyrighted.
• An exception applies to the photographic and similarly-made works, and the works of applied art, which are considered free if published before 1 January 1970. The copyright on these works lasted for 25 years since the publication per the 1978 Yugoslav copyright act. This also includes still images of videos if these images were published before 1970.
• The publication right applies for all works, published for the first time on 29 April 1995 or later, even if the copyright has already expired. It lasts for 25 years starting 1 January of the year following the year of the publication.
• All the durations are calculated from 1 January of the year following the year of their initial event.^{[12/2016 Art.673]}

Under the Consolidated Copyright Act as of 2016,

• Copyright lasts for the life of the author and 70 years after his death, unless provided otherwise.^{[12/2016 Art.59]}
• With a work of joint authorship, the expiration date in 70 years after the death of author who died last.^{[12/2016 Art.60(1)]}
• Protection of musical works with words expire 70 years after the death of the last surviving author of music or author of the text, regardless of whether they are designated as co-authors.^{[12/2016 Art.60(2)]}
• Copyright in anonymous and pseudonymous works runs for 70 years after the lawful disclosure of the work.^{[12/2016 Art.61(1)]} If the pseudonym leaves no doubt about who is the author, or the author reveals his identity during the 70 year period, protection is for the author's life plus 70 years.^{[12/2016 Art.61(2)]}
• Copyright in collective works runs for 70 years after the lawful disclosure of the work.^{[12/2016 Art.62]} Inclusion of an individual work in a collective work does not affect the rights of the individual authors to their works.^{[12/2016 Art.8]}
• When the duration does not run from the death of the author or authors and the work was not lawfully disclosed within 70 years from its creation, the copyright ends with expiration of this term.^{[12/2016 Art.63]}

Copyright in the United States:

• The URAA date of 1 January 1996 applies. This means that works that were not in the public domain in Slovenia on 1 January 1996 are still copyrighted in the United States and thus not free for the purposes and scope of Commons.
• An exception has been adopted for files uploaded before 1 March 2012, which may be hosted on Commons and tagged with {{Not-PD-US-URAA}}.

Related rights duration

• The related rights start run from the day of the event:

• in the case of performances, for 50 years after the performance or in the case of its lawful disclosure, 50 years after its first publication;

• the performers' rights have expired for performances from before 29 April 1990;

• in the case of sound recordings, for 50 years after the day of the production of the recording or in the case of its lawful disclosure, 50 years after its first publication;

• the sound recording producers' rights have expired for recordings from before 1 January 1975;

• in the case of unpublished free works, for 25 years after the day of the lawful publication (the publication right);

• this applies only for works, published for the first time on 29 April 1995 or later.

• in the case of critical or scientific publications of free works, for 30 years after the day of the first lawful publication;
• in the case of continued works, the term is separately calculated for each of the composing parts;
• in the case of collections, insignificant changes do not lengthen the duration of the copyright on the collection.

Not protected

Shortcut

• COM:NOP Slovenia

See also: Commons:Unprotected works

Under the Consolidated Copyright Act as of 2016,

• There is no copyright protection for 1. ideas, principles, discoveries; 2. official texts of a legislative, administrative and judicial nature; 3. folk literary and artistic creations.^{[12/2016 Art.9(1)]}

  According to a 2010 book, this also encompasses the national coat of arms, the municipal coats of arms, the anthem, urban planning maps, drawings of traffic signs, sketches and plans from the patent file after the official publication of the patent, and other similar material published due to a state jurisdiction as part of the official text, its annex or independently.

• Translations of texts mentioned hereby should enjoy copyright protection, unless they are published as official texts.^{[12/2016 Art.9(2)]}

• Certain photographs that are not an "individual intellectual creation of the photographer" are not protected. Trampuž specifically cites the following types of images:
  • automated routine photographs; specifically listed: photographic automates, traffic safety images, images taken as part of the technical protection of objects, meteorological and satellite photographs
  • routine photographs for documents
  • average amateur photographs
  • routine press photographs

These, however, can often become an author's work, which is judged from case to case.

In numerous actual cases, they have also been recognised as copyrighted.

Other restrictions

In Slovenia there are restrictions on;

• publication of reproductions of public archives. An authorisation of the archival institution is needed for any publication.
• the usage of the national flag, the coat of arms, and the anthem.

Copyright tags

Shortcut

• COM:TAG Slovenia

See also: Commons:Copyright tags

• {{PD-Slovenia}} – for works whose author died before 1954 or published before 1954 if anonymous (public domain prior to introduction of the new law in 1995).
• {{PD-Slovenia-exempt}} – for non-protected creations in Slovenia (ideas, principles, discoveries; official legislative, administrative and judicial texts; folk literary and artistic creations.)

Currency

Shortcut

• COM:CUR Slovenia

See also: Commons:Currency

 Not OK: The copyright on the design of the tolar and other obsolete currencies as well as the national sides of the euro coins is held by the Bank of Slovenia.

Slovenia has used the Euro since 1 January 2007. See COM:CRT/European Union: Currency for more information.

De minimis

Shortcut

• COM:DM Slovenia

See also: Commons:De minimis

Article 52 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act:

• "Such disclosed works that may be regarded as accessory works of secondary importance with regard to the actual purpose of some material object, may be used freely while exploiting such object."^{[2007 Art.52]}

Article 52 has been interpreted by the copyright expert Miha Trampuž in his book Copyright and Related Rights Act with Commentary. He has highlighted the following aspects: the work must have been disclosed, it must have been incidental with another object or work, it could be at will replaced with another work, and it is inessential in the copyright sense to the object or work.

See Commons:Deletion requests/File:Postcard of Ljubljana, Prešeren Square (3).jpg.

Freedom of panorama

Shortcut

• COM:FOP Slovenia

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

 Not OK Use: {{NoFoP-Slovenia}}. Only non-commercial use allowed. Under the Consolidated Copyright Act as of 2016,

• Works permanently placed in parks, streets, squares or other public places, may be used freely.^{[12/2016 Art.55(1)]}
• The preceding paragraph does not apply to three-dimensional copies made for the same purpose as the original work, or copies made for profit.^{[12/2016 Art.55(2)]}
• The copy should state the source and authorship of the work, if indicated on the work.^{[12/2016 Art.55(3)]}

OK for all works whose creators died or published them anonymously or pseudonymously (and have remained anonymous or pseudonymous) in 1953 or earlier.

• Another exception is photographs of photographic and similarly-made works in a public space, and photographs of the works of applied art, which are acceptable for Commons if the original (non-derivative) work was published in 1969 or earlier. The copyright on these works lasted for 25 years from publication per the 1978 Yugoslav copyright act.^{[1978 Art.84]}

In addition to copyright, the usage of the reproductions of "cultural monuments" for commercial purposes is restricted by the Slovenian Cultural Heritage Protection Act, which requires consensus of the owner of the monument for any use of the image and name of the monument (Article 44). The definition of a cultural monument is the following (Article 3): heritage that has been statutorily protected as a monument or entered in the inventory of an authorised museum. For immovable cultural heritage, the national catalog is publicly accessible at gisportal.gov.si. Wikimedia Commons is not required to comply with the Slovenian Cultural Heritage Protection Act because it is hosted in the United States of America. Users who are citizens of Slovenia are warned that they are solely responsible for any possible violation of local laws.

Threshold of originality

Shortcut

• COM:TOO Slovenia

See also: Commons:Threshold of originality

The threshold of originality in Slovenia depends on the field of creativity. If the maneuvering space of the possible creativity is narrower, it requires more creativity for a work to be copyrighted. In this regard, the following court cases are relevant:

Applied arts:

• VSL0069492 - the design of a couch set has been found to be below the threshold.
• VS0011606 – the design of a sales stand has been found to be above the threshold.

Architecture:

• VSL00432 – only the works that constitute an original artwork are copyrighted; the renovation plan of Ljubljana Castle as well as the newly built and (at least some of) the renovated parts of the castle count as such.

Logo:

• VSL00013281 – the logo with inscription "I Feel Slovenia" [3] was found to constitute a copyrighted work.

The court opined: "The slogan and the logo, which contains both verbal and graphic elements, do not allow them to be separated. Only the synergy of the verbal and graphic elements allows the observer to identify the overall message of the author's work."

Titles:

• VS07924 – the title "Brez zavor" (meaning "Without inhibitions") has been found to be below the threshold.

See also

• Slovenija
• Category:License tags of Slovenia
• Category:Slovenian FOP cases
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/European Union
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/Yugoslavia

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