List of copyright duration by country

This general expression covers almost all products of creative and original effort.

Several countries provide separate protection for collections of facts that qualify as "databases", but that provision is not considered copyright.

In some countries, registration with a copyright office has additional benefits, such as the ability to sue, or to receive more money in damages.

The Berne Convention stipulates that the duration of the term for copyright protection is the life of the author plus at least 50 years after their death.

Berne specifies that copyright exists a minimum of 50 years after the author's death,[1] while a number of countries, including the European Union and the United States, have extended that to 70 years after the author's death.

A small number of countries have extended copyright even further, with Mexico having the lengthiest term at 100 years after the author's death.

Since that date, U.S. authors obtain copyright on their works automatically, with registration no longer required.

[clarification needed] All countries within the European Union are signatory states of the Berne Convention.

The member states of the European Union have, following a directive, increased the term to life of the author plus 70 years after their death.

Although this was not the original intention, the extension applies retroactively; this had the effect that works that had ended up in the public domain because the author was dead for 50 years, received an additional twenty years of protection.

European countries follow the principle that copyright protection is granted automatically upon creation of the work.

The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), though not included, requires a copyright length of at least 50 years after death.

31(5)(6) 25 years from the first day of the year following the first disclosure if copyright protection of a scope consistent with the author's economic rights shall be due to the person who, following the expiration of the term of protection or the period of time determined in the term of protection shall be counted from a date other than the first day of the year following the death of the author, the author dying last, or the joint author, discloses according to the law a work previously not disclosed to the public.[103]: s.

If such an unpublished work, whose copyright has expired, is then later published, the publisher is entitled for a copyright for 25 years from the year of publication[177] One exception from the rule is works that are already in public domain in their country of origin who are members of the Berne Union and/or WTO.

[..] For material that is outside the scope of copyright, the phrase «i det fri» («in the free») is used.

[239] Recordings which entered the public domain prior to 1 January 2013 are not retroactively covered.

[253] After expiry of copyright, the work "may be announced to be the ownership of the State" (emphasis added).