The National Museum of Romanian History (MNIR) makes available photographic resources regarding the communist regime in Romania, so that anyone can use them free of charge. According to the terms of use stated on the site, anyone that uses the photographs uploaded on this website, regardless of purpose or nature of the work, is obliged to mention the copyright holder of the image: The National History Museum of Romania (from the project Communism in Romania).[1]
According to the Decree no. 321/1956 of June 18, 1956 Chapter 1 Article 7, non-artistic photographs were not expressly protected by copyright. Artistic photographs taken between 1956 and 1996 are protected by copyright for a limited term, as follows:
(b) 10 years since issuance for the author of an artistic photographic series
(c) 5 years since issuance for the author of an isolated artistic photograph
Of the aforementioned photographs, those whose term hadn't expired before 1996 received a considerable prolongation, according to the Romanian Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights Law no. 8/1996 of March 14, 1996 Article 149, Paragraph 3, modified by Law no. 285/2004 of June 23, 2004, Article 128:
The length of copyright over works that have been created before the enforcement of this law and whose protection terms had not expired according to the previous legislation are prolonged to the protection term provided by this law.
Therefore, Romanian artistic photographs whose protection term expired before 1996 are now in the public domain. These include photographic series published before 1986 and isolated photographs published before 1991. As a courtesy, please credit the author whenever using the photograph.
