Ottoman Empire

Commons' license tag covers works published in the Ottoman Empire on two grounds: the empire's formalities of copyright notice, registration and deposit were not met, or the term of 30 years after the author's death ran out before the empire was dissolved.¹² Commons adds that the empire did not recognize international copyright, and that because it was dissolved in 1923, all works published there are public domain in the United States.¹ Its general rules also warn that works still in copyright at dissolution may fall under a successor country's law, and ask for a precise publication date for anything from around 1920. The stamp note does not repeat that warning.¹

The empire issued its first adhesive stamps on January 1, 1863, showing the tughra of Sultan Abdülaziz, lithographed at the Constantinople mint.³ Some later issues were made abroad: the Duloz stamps of 1865 were engraved by a Frenchman and first printed in Paris, and the pictorial sets of 1913 and 1914, designed by Oskan Effendi, were printed in England by Bradbury, Wilkinson.³ During the First World War old stocks were overprinted, some more than once.³ The empire's lands passed to Turkey and to states under British and French mandates.¹ Commons dates the dissolution to 1923; Wikidata gives November 17, 1922.¹⁴ From 1920 to 1922 the rival government in Ankara also overprinted old stamps.³ Commons does not say how its successor-law warning applies to the last Ottoman issues or the Ankara stamps, so the question is open.