According to Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, soon you will have to pay royalties if you want to utilise a reproduction of a pharaonic site such as the Great Pyramid at Giza or the Sphinx. Egyptian MPs are expected to pass a bill into law which would effectively claim copyright for the design of these ancient constructions. Zahi Hawass, the head of the Supreme Council of Antiquities stated that this law “will be applied in all countries of the world so that we can protect our interests”.

Now, it appears that the media have taken AFP’s lead and just looked at how (if given credence) this law would affect people who already use the likeness of the pyramids. What they perhaps should have done is investigate whether this law could actually be enforced in any way outside of Egypt. What the Egyptians are essentially trying to do is two things. Firstly, they are trying to extend the term of copyright to ~4,000 years and secondly, they are assuming the right to hold the copyright which would have originally been held (had copyright law existed then) with the pharaohs themselves.

For a start, the law probably isn’t going to hold any water with countries who are not signatories to the Berne convention. Secondly, in countries that are signatories, the rule of the shorter term usually applies:

Berne Convention Article 7 (8)

In any case, the term shall be governed by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed; however, unless the legislation of that country otherwise provides, the term shall not exceed the term fixed in the country of origin of the work.

This means that when the protection of copyright is claimed or utilised in legal action by the author, the legislation of the country where the claim or infringement occurs will be in force. So, if somebody in England made a copy of the Great Sphinx, UK law would be in force and if the Sphinx were categorised as an ‘artistic work’, it’s copyright would have lapsed 70 years after the death of it’s author or creator. Upon it’s lapse, the copyright of the Sphinx would transfer into the public domain in the UK. Now, we estimate that the Great Sphinx is around 4,500 years old and it’s creator (presumably a pharaoh or similar) would not have lived into modern times*. We can’t be certain of the actual date but we do know that the Sphinx was first depicted in a photograph around 1867 [pictured] and the copyright of this private work is now lapsed too.

It would appear that the Egyptian MPs are either unaware of how copyright law works or are perhaps being supremely arrogant by assuming that Egyptian law can be enforced throughout the world. It is also possible, of course, that the media have misconstrued a story that did not come out well in translation.

*It did cross my mind that they might be trying to claim copyright due to the pharaohs having ‘eternal life’ as gods but I don’t think that will wash with most Berne Convention countries.

Header Photo: Ricardo Liberato cc-by-sa-2.0
Article Photo: Przemyslaw Idzkiewicz cc-by-sa-2.5