English: Photograph taken in 1937 of a Sator Square (in ROTAS-form, item CILIV, 08623) found on a column in the Grand Palaestra, in Pompeii. The photograph was taken by noted Italian archaeologist Matteo Della Corte. The photograph also contains the words SAUTRAN and VALE (items CILIV, 08622a-CILIV, 08622b) below the square.
The country of origin of this photograph is Italy. It is in the public domain there because its copyright term has expired. According to Law for the Protection of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights n.633, 22 April 1941 and later revisions, images of people or of aspects, elements and facts of natural or social life, obtained with photographic process or with an analogue one, including reproductions of figurative art and film frames of film stocks (Art. 87) are protected for a period of 20 years from creation (Art. 92). This provision shall not apply to photographs of writings, documents, business papers, material objects, technical drawings and similar products (Art. 87). Italian law makes an important distinction between "works of photographic art" and "simple photographs" (Art. 2, § 7). Photographs that are "intellectual work with creative characteristics" are protected for 70 years after the author's death (Art. 32 bis), whereas simple photographs are protected for a period of 20 years from creation.
Italy
This may not apply in countries that don't apply the rule of the shorter term to works from Italy. In particular, these are in the public domain in the United States only if:
wasn't in copyright in the United States due to being registered for copyright there (see Commons:Copyright tags#United States for most cases) and
was created prior to 1976 and published prior to 1978 — then it was out-of-copyright in Italy on the URAA date of restoration (January 1, 1996) (17 U.S.C.§ 104A) (in most cases; for all cases, see Template:PD-Italy/US). If so, please add {{PD-1996}} in addition to this copyright tag. If the image was created after 1975 or was published after 1977, please add {{Not-PD-US-URAA}}.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it meets three requirements:
it was first published outside the United States (and not published in the U.S. within 30 days),
it was first published before 1 March 1989 without copyright notice or before 1964 without copyright renewal or before the source country established copyright relations with the United States,
it was in the public domain in its home country on the URAA date (January 1, 1996 for most countries).
For background information, see the explanations on Non-U.S. copyrights. Note: This tag should not be used for sound recordings.
Per discussion on Wikipedia:Wikipedia:Media copyright questions#Photo of CIL IV 8623/22a-b, this is a "simple photograph" taken in 1937 in Italy by Italian state archaeologist Della Corte, which was therefore created before 1976 (per the source). The reason for the number 1976 is that the URAA gave American law copyright to any image which was still in copyright in Italy on 1 January 1996. As a "simple photograph", the image certainly had a 20-year copyright period from creation, so if it was created before 1976, it was out of copyright at the restoration date.
Captions
Sator Square (in ROTAS-form) on a column in the Palestra in Pompeii, Italy (1937)