Commons:Copyright rules by territory/American Samoa

Location of American Samoa

American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of Samoa. See also Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United States.

Laws

American Samoa laws are subject to a constitution that became effective 17 October 1960. A Constitutional Convention of American Samoa in Fagatogo begun on 26 September 1966 and approved several amendments. These were approved in a referendum in the general elections in 1966, and became effective 1 July 1967.

Of the territories, the United States Copyright Office says that: "U.S. federal copyright law applies in the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands but not in American Samoa." Title 27 of the American Samoa Consolidated Legislation - Code Annotated (ASCA), related to Commerce and Trade, prohibits import or export of Goods, merchandise or commodities that violate international or U.S. copyright or patent laws, but does not otherwise mention copyright law.

As of 1993, American Samoa itself enacted no copyright laws. However, "because a copyright may be obtained by a person who is not a citizen of the U.S., but who is instead either "a national or domiciliary of the United States" (17 U.S.C. 104(b)(1)), United States copyright protection is available to Samoans in general... That protection, however, would not extend to the Samoan... author "at home" in Samoa... because the Federal law does not extend to... Samoa." In other words, "The Federal copyright laws... do not apply within American Samoa..., but American Samoans can obtain copyright protection elsewhere in the United States".

This means that American Samoans can in principle obtain copyright protection from the United States, even though the protections does not apply in American Samoa itself. Due to American Samoa's absence from the Berne Convention and the WTO, URAA does not apply, meaning that any work published there without a notice before 1989 may be Public Domain in the U.S if it meets the conditions specified in the relevant PD template.

Copyright tags

{{PD-American Samoa}}

{{PD-1996}}

Currency

Further information: Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United States#CUR

Freedom of panorama

Shortcut

• COM:FOP American Samoa

See also: Commons:Freedom of panorama

COM:FOP US, except for non-Berne Convention country nationals.

Freedom of panorama is an exemption from copyright law. As there is no copyright law in American Samoa in the first place, US freedom of panorama will apply only in relation to applicable copyright law relating to the citizenship/nationality status of the copyright holder. Therefore, US FOP law applies to applicable works where the copyright is held by any individual except for sole citizens/nationals of non-Berne Convention countries, where no copyright is applicable at all.

As the copyright of any American Samoan artist would be protected in the United States according to US federal law, such works would be protected similarly to American FOP.

Stamps

Further information: Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United States#Stamps

See also

• American Samoa
• Commons:Copyright rules by territory/United States

Sources

• Leibowitz, Arnold H (1980). "American Samoa: Decline of a Culture". California Western International Law Journal 10: 220–271.
• Leibowitz, Arnold H (1989) Defining Status: A Comprehensive Analysis of United States Territorial Relations ISBN: 978-0-7923-0069-4.

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