This Jordanian photograph or Applied Art which was created on or before December 31, 1974,[1] is currently in the public domain in Jordan because Article 32 of Copyright Law No. 22 of 1992 was amended by Law No. 29 of 1999 to provide for a 25-year term of protection for photographs starting January 1st of year of completion. Although this provision was later repealed by Law No. 78 of 2003, the repeal did not renew the copyright of photographs which had already fallen into the public domain, because Article 7 of the 1992 law explicitly disallows such retroactive protection of out-of-copyright works.
Or, by Article 7 section a, it is a photocopy of Jordanian Laws, Regulations, "Daily news published, broadcast or communicated to the public", Court orders or Official governmental documents or Official translation of any of the above or any part of it.
In order to be hosted on Commons, all works must be in the public domain in the United States as well as in their source country. The copyright of all pre-1975 Jordanian photographs had expired in Jordan on the U.S. date of restoration (July 28, 1999).[2] Such photographs are thus currently in the public domain in the United States.[3]
[1]Between 1999 and 2003, Article 32 of the 1992 law stated that the term of protection for photographs was to be calculated starting from the 1st of January of the year of their actual completion (and not starting from the next calendar year as is the case in many countries). The term of protection for a photograph completed on December 31, 1974 was thus calculated starting from January 1, 1974, and expired on January 1, 1999.
[2]Circular 38a: International Copyright Relations of the United States (PDF) p. 5. United States Copyright Office (March 2009). Retrieved on 2010-03-04.
[3]17 U.S.C. § 104A
