Templet:PD-old-auto
The licensing Template:PD-old-auto automatically re-calculates the current public-domain year span, based on the specified final year and month for a person's life:
- Format: {{PD-old-auto|1925}}
- Format: {{PD-old-auto|1925|7}}
The parameters are as follows:
- Parameter 1 is the final year of the author's life (year=1925).
- Parameter 2 is the final month of the author's life (month=7).
If the final month is known, then specify the month number as parameter 2 (or month=nn). However, if the month is unknown, for a person who died later in the year, then consider adding 1: 1925+1 = 1926, to avoid problems of copyright for exact month/day.
The license box, displayed by the template, will change (from year to year) to select from the current multi-language license boxes for public-domain spans, such as {{PD-old-80}} for life of the author plus 80 years. In future years, the box will change to use {{PD-old-90}} and then {{PD-old-100}}.
As time passes, the license span will change, because more years will have elapsed since the lifetime of that person. Once the template is being used, there will no need to re-edit a page for the license year span, because it will automatically adjust for the actual year (currently: 2024), in the future.
Impact - This template applies to many thousands of image files, for authors who died in the 20th century. Expect it to be used for most works among the top 5,000 artists or painters. There will no longer be a need to re-edit those pages to adjust the public-domain year span, in future years.