Brazil

The date comes from a Commons license tag that covers works published or commissioned by a Brazilian federal, state or municipal government before 1983.¹ The tag cites Article 662 of Law 3071 of 1916, Article 46 of Law 5988 of 1973, and Article 115 of Law 9.610 of 1998, which Commons says WIPO lists as Brazil's main IP law.¹² Commons' tag for works free in both Brazil and the United States lists the same pre-1983 government works among those already public domain in Brazil on January 1, 1996, the URAA date Commons gives for Brazil.³² Neither tag states the term the older laws gave government works, so neither shows how 1983 was reached, and the archive follows Commons' cutoff.

Brazil became independent of Portugal in 1822 as an empire and became a republic in 1889, according to Commons.² Wikipedia records that its first stamps, the "Bull's Eyes," were issued on August 1, 1843, so every Brazilian stamp dates from after independence.⁴ Wikidata gives 1969 as the founding year of Correios, the national postal company, and classes it as a business.⁵ Commons' license tag speaks of works published or commissioned by a government. Commons' note on stamps applies the tag to every stamp issued before 1983 and does not say whether the company's issues from 1969 to 1982 count as government works. The archive follows the note and treats that question as open.