The National Library of Australia says that every photograph taken before 1 January 1955 is out of copyright. For a later photograph, section 33 of the Copyright Act 1968 sets the term, and in the main case copyright continues until “70 years after the calendar year in which the author of the work died”. The other cases, an author nobody can name and a photograph not made public before 2019, have rules of their own, set out below in the Act’s words.
General informationDotto is not a photo restorer, a photographer or a copyright adviser. It does not scan, restore, retouch, colourise or print photographs, and does not offer or arrange that work. This is general information, not advice.
This page sets out section 33 as it stands in compilation 65 of the Act (2 April 2026) on the Federal Register of Legislation, the place to check the current text. It does not say whether any particular photograph is in copyright.
Before 1 January 1955
The 1955 line comes from the National Library’s summary of copyright for its Pictures Collection, a page published on 23 March 2022. In it, the Library notes that the Act defines several different periods of protection, and then says that no photograph taken before 1 January 1955 is still in copyright. The older law behind that date is not set out in this guide.
From 1955: the two tables in section 33
Section 33 holds two tables. Which one applies depends on a single date: whether the work was first made public before 1 January 2019. The section also says it “has effect subject to Part VII” of the Act, a part this guide does not cover.
| Item | If … | The copyright continues to subsist until … |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | “no other item of this table applies” | “70 years after the calendar year in which the author of the work died.” |
| 3 | “the identity of the author of the work is not generally known at any time before the end of 70 years after the calendar year in which the work was first made public” | “70 years after the calendar year in which the work was first made public.” |
Item 2 of the same table names literary, dramatic and musical works, computer programs excepted, and engravings. Photographs are not on its list.
| Item | If … | The copyright continues to subsist until … |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | “no other item of this table applies” | “70 years after the calendar year in which the author of the work died.” |
| 2 | “(a) the identity of the author is not generally known at any time before the end of 70 years after the calendar year in which the work was made; and (b) the work is not first made public before the end of 50 years after the calendar year in which the work was made” | “70 years after the calendar year in which the work was made.” |
| 3 | “(a) the identity of the author is not generally known at any time before the end of 70 years after the calendar year in which the work was first made public; and (b) the work is first made public before the end of 50 years after the calendar year in which the work was made” | “70 years after the calendar year in which the work was first made public.” |
Copyright Act 1968, section 33(3), compilation 65.
Reading the tables in plain words
In summary, and not in the Act’s words:
- Where the author is known, both tables come back to the same measure: the author’s death, plus 70 calendar years.
- Where the author’s identity is not generally known, the clock starts instead from the year the work was first made public, or, for a work not made public within 50 years of being made, from the year it was made.
- Each period is counted in whole calendar years after a year, not from a date within that year.
The Act’s test for when a work counts as “made public” is not set out in this guide.
Three worked examples
Example, with figures computed from the tablesThese are invented photographs, used only to show the arithmetic.
- First made public in 1975, photographer known, died in 1990. Section 33(2) applies, and item 3 does not, so item 1 does: 70 years after the calendar year 1990, which takes the term to the end of 2060.
- The same photograph, but nobody can name who took it. Item 3 of section 33(2) applies: 70 years after the calendar year 1975, the year it was first made public, which is the end of 2045.
- Taken in 1980, never made public, author unknown. Section 33(3) applies. If it is not first made public before the end of 2030, item 2 points to 70 years after 1980, the end of 2050. If it were first made public in 2028, inside the 50 years that end with 2030, and the author were still unknown, item 3 would apply instead: 70 years after 2028, the end of 2098.
The third example shows why a family snapshot’s term can still move: the table that applies depends on what happens to the photograph, and on whether its author comes to be known.
Photographs taken before the Act commenced
The legislation history printed with the Act gives its commencement as 1 May 1969. For a photograph taken before then, section 208 changes who counts as its “author”: it is the person who owned the material the photograph was taken on, at the time it was taken. Where that owner was a body corporate, the rule reaches only references to the author that relate to who owns the copyright. Both subsections are set out in full in the guide to owning the print and the copyright.
When the term has ended
The Attorney-General’s Department puts it simply: “You can also use material without getting permission if its copyright term has ended and it is no longer covered by copyright.” Moral rights in a photograph end at the same point, because section 195AM keeps them in force only until copyright ceases to subsist; the moral rights guide sets that section out.