Image talk:Hitlermusso2 edit.jpg

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This picture was apparently deleted on Commons due to an improper license! See http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Image:Hitlermusso2_edit.jpg&action=edit and look at the deletion log - it's been gone since September 22.

The copyright tag on the current version on the English Wikipedia appears inappropriate - the rationale for it being out of copyright is given as "Image is tagged LVCE, Italian fascist propaganda news agency, copyright expired in Italy" while the template text is about "simple" (as opposed to "artistic") images. To make things more confusing, the tag being used on English Wikipedia is {{PD-Italy}} which seems to have equivalent wording to the Commons template "PD-Italy" which was deleted here, whereas on Commons there is also a Template:PD-ItalyGov which does talk about expiry of copyright in the case of State-produced images. Can anybody clarify this situation? Purgatorio (talk) 01:17, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

I would hope there's no license issue with this image on the En-Wikipedia, since it's tomorrow's Featured Picture! How embarrassing that would be. It seems that the image was deleted on Commons because an EU rules change resulted in superceding the former 20-yr. Italian limit on copyright for simple photos (while also apparently very narrowly circumscribing what constitutes a "simple" photograph). But on the En-Wikipedia where U.S. copyright law (17 U.S.C. §104A) applies because En-Wikipedia is based in Florida, it remains PD because the image was first published before 1977 and was public domain in Italy as of Jan. 1, 1996. As I understand it, the U.S. law stipulates that anything that was PD in Italy before 1996 became PD in the U.S. and, secondly, once an image passes into PD in the U.S., it's irrevocably so. JGHowes ^talk - 03:00, 6 December 2007 (UTC)

So is the copyright tag wrong? This is without doubt not a "simple, documentary photographs without creative input of the author enter the public domain after 20 years"? (Maybe I am being too certain in this pronouncement!:)) The rationale seems to be that it is a State-produced photograph, and should be licensed under conditions equivalent to Template:PD-ItalyGov? Purgatorio (talk) 17:53, 6 December 2007 (UTC)