File talk:Claude Bernou Carte de lAmerique septentrionale.jpg

Is this copyright or licensed in any sense? When it limits permission "on out CD/DVDs"?

LoopZilla 13:12, 16 May 2005 (UTC)

It's public domain according to US law, and the policy on commons is that is something is public domain according to US law, it's admissible, whether or not the content is public domain according to, say, French law (for instance, we have reproductions of paintings from Henri Matisse that are not in the public domain in France, simply because the artist has not been dead long enough).

Now, it is not even sure whether this work is copyrighted in France. It is possible that a court would judge this work a technical reproduction of a work, and thus ineligible for copyright in itself. It is also possible that they judge that any photograph (as opposed to, say, a scanning) is inherently copyrightable. However, in the latter case, we have a licence for use on the web site. This license is, as you rightly point out, not free (but it covers our activities for Wikipedia etc.). David.Monniaux 17:34, 16 May 2005 (UTC)