Commons talk:WikiProject Public Domain/PD-because review

Japan roadsigns

A significant proportion of the files are members of Category:Diagrams of road signs of Japan, which should use {{PD-Japan-exempt}} instead of PD-because referencing the same law. However before conversion it would be good to confirm that Japan-exempt really covers Japanese roadsigns. A custom template is also worth considering - compare {{PD-VzKat}} for German roadsigns. Rd232 (talk) 12:32, 6 September 2012 (UTC)

I set up Commons:WikiProject Public Domain/PD-because review/Governments in Japan cannot assert copyright (quite a large gallery page) to list the files tagged with {{PD-because|According to articles 13 of the copyright laws of Japan, Governments in Japan can not assert the copyright for public documents which is released by them.}} They're all Japanese road signs in SVG format. I've divided the page up into simple and more complex signs.

The signs in the first half are, in my opinion, not copyrightable, because they contain no creativity or originality. The signs in the second half are complex enough that they may be copyrightable, unless they are covered by other exemptions, such as {{PD-Japan-exempt}}. Personally, I'm skeptical about {{PD-Japan-exempt}} applying to road signs. It doesn't seem to fit any of the categories of works mentioned.

In both cases, the vectorisations may be copyrightable, and the uploader should indicate if they want to waive that copyright or issue a license. Since we're dealing with a lot of files, it's worth doing things correctly. That may require someone who speaks Japanese, though. —LX (talk, contribs) 14:49, 14 September 2012 (UTC)

Most signs should be {{PD-ineligible}}. If a sign was used before 1946, it should be {{PD-Japan-organization}}{{PD-1996}}. Do we have dates for any of the signs? If they are old enough, we don't have to dig into the meaning of {{PD-Japan-exempt}}. --Stefan4 (talk) 15:11, 14 September 2012 (UTC)