It is an anonymous work or pseudonymous work and 50 years have passed since the year of its publication or it was published prior to 1 May 2004
It is a work where the copyright holder is a legal entity or a work of applied art and 50 years have passed since the year of its publication
It is a photographic or cinematic work that is not compositive (artistic in nature) first published before 1 May 1999
It is work published in Iraq before 1 May 1954, and the author died before 1 May 1979
It is another kind of work, and 50 years have passed since the year of death of the author (or last-surviving author)
It is one of "collections of official documents, such as texts of international laws, regulations and agreements, judicial judgements and various official documents."
It is the work of a body corporate, public or private, published by January 1st, 1980 (Article 20, 1971 law).
Per U.S. Circ. 38a, the following countries are not participants in the Berne Convention or Universal Copyright Convention and there is no presidential proclamation restoring U.S. copyright protection to works of these countries on the basis of reciprocal treatment of the works of U.S. nationals or domiciliaries:
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Marshall Islands, Palau, Somalia, Somaliland, and South Sudan.
As such, works published by citizens of these countries in these countries are usually not subject to copyright protection outside of these countries. Hence, such works may be in the public domain in most other countries worldwide.
However:
Works published in these countries by citizens or permanent residents of other countries that are signatories to the Berne Convention or any other treaty on copyright will still be protected in their home country and internationally as well as locally by local copyright law (if it exists).
Similarly, works published outside of these countries within 30 days of publication within these countries will also usually be subject to protection in the foreign country of publication. When works are subject to copyright outside of these countries, the term of such copyright protection may exceed the term of copyright inside them.
Unpublished works from these countries may be fully copyrighted.
A work from one of these countries may become copyrighted in the United States under the URAA if the work's home country enters a copyright treaty or agreement with the United States and the work is still under copyright in its home country.
