Lithuania
Are Lithuania stamps public domain?
Yes: Lithuanian stamps of any date are public domain, in the archive's reading of Wikimedia Commons. Commons tells uploaders which license tag to use. That tag rests on Article 5 of Lithuania's 1999 copyright law, which leaves official state symbols and insignia, such as flags, coats of arms and banknote designs, outside copyright. No cutoff year applies.
Why any date?
Commons' note on Lithuanian stamps is a single line naming the license tag to use.1 The tag quotes Article 5 of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights of May 18, 1999, which excludes legal acts, official documents, and official state symbols and insignia; the examples it gives are flags, coats of arms, anthems and banknote designs.2 Stamps are not named in that list, and Commons does not explain why it places them under it. The exclusion has no time limit, so the archive gives the same answer for every year of issue.
Postal history and copyright
Commons records that Lithuania declared independence on February 16, 1918, was occupied by the Soviet Union, Germany and the Soviet Union again during the Second World War, and declared independence from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990.1 The first Lithuanian stamps were issued in Vilnius in 1918, and the republic issued 768 designs before 1940, according to Wikipedia.3 After the 1940 occupation Lithuanian stamps were overprinted "LTSR" and then replaced by Soviet stamps, and after the German occupation in 1941 Soviet stamps were overprinted "Nepriklausoma Lietuva". Lithuania issued its own stamps again from 1990.3 Commons' note on stamps does not separate the interwar issues from those since 1990, and it does not address Soviet or German stamps used in Lithuania. The archive treats the status of those occupation issues as open.
References 3
- ↑ Copyright rules for Lithuania. Wikimedia Commons, September 14, 2026. Accessed October 8, 2026.
- ↑ Wikimedia Commons license tag (Lithuania). Wikimedia Commons, October 22, 2022. Accessed October 8, 2026.
- ↑ Postage stamps and postal history of Lithuania. Wikipedia, January 11, 2026. Accessed October 8, 2026.
Copyright law in Lithuania
Lithuania’s own stamps follow the rule below. The historical issuers named here are read under the country’s general copyright law. A design answers Likely yes or Likely no only when every term that could apply agrees, and Unclear when they disagree.
- Named designer
- 70 years after the designer’s death
- Anonymous
- 70 years from issue
- Note
- Lithuanian stamps are exempt from copyright. The law in force on January 1, 1996 protected an anonymous work for 50 years from publication.
Historical issuers read under this law: Central Lithuania (Polish Occupation), Eastern Command Area, Klaipėda, Lithuania (German Occupation), Memel (French Administration), Ostland, Poland (Russian Province), Prussia, South Lithuania (Russian Occupation).
Read from Wikimedia Commons, copyright rules for Lithuania, revision 1276490403, checked October 8, 2026
The rule by period
Lithuania stamps and the public domain: questions
- Are Lithuanian stamps public domain?
- Yes, whatever the date, in the archive's reading. Lithuanian stamps fall under Article 5 of Lithuania's 1999 copyright law, which leaves official state symbols and insignia, such as flags, coats of arms and banknote designs, outside copyright. Wikimedia Commons places stamps there without saying why, and the exclusion has no time limit.
- Are interwar Lithuanian stamps from 1918 to 1940 public domain?
- Yes, in the archive's reading. Lithuanian stamps of any date are public domain under the 1999 copyright law's exclusion for official state symbols and insignia, which has no time limit, and the archive applies it to the interwar issues of 1918 to 1940 as it does to those since 1990.
- Are Soviet or German occupation stamps used in Lithuania public domain?
- It is an open question. After 1940 Lithuanian stamps were overprinted "LTSR" and then replaced by Soviet stamps, and after the German occupation in 1941 Soviet stamps were overprinted "Nepriklausoma Lietuva". Wikimedia Commons' note on Lithuanian stamps does not address these issues.