No Idea. Not my area, nor have much interest in finding out. :) I think, Mona Lisa is attributed to Da Vinci, but there is no copyright on it today. He's been dead for over 300 years now, so... See <a href="http://www.culturekiosque.com/art/news/davincicode_pictures_monalisa.html">here</a> for more (trivial) details Common sense would say the Egyptian hieroglyphs cannot be copyrighted since they were their alphabet. It would be like saying "I'm sorry you cannot use the letter Aa, because it's copyrighted to me. And I say no." No idea about actual artworks. Probably no copyright since the authors are long since dead. Shakespeare.. well..I would say the same. But this <a href="http://www.william-shakespeare.info/copyright.htm">website</a> says differently. Are they an authority on copyright for Shakespeare? I dont know. ... This <a href="http://www.shakespeare-online.com/siteinfo/copyright.html">website</a> claims THEY have copyright...So do a few others. I *think* shakespears works are in public domain. But...IANAL. :) <div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Apr 12, 2009 at 8:45 PM, Oleg Koptev <<a href="mailto:koptev.oleg@gmail.com">koptev.oleg@gmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div class="im">>> Some areas do not recognise PD works, instead saying "all artwork is copyrighted." </div>What about ancient egyptian's artworks? Mona Lisa? Shakespeare? Hows they protect copyright issues there? </blockquote></div> Interesting reading on copyright. <a href="http://www.ur.umich.edu/9798/Mar11_98/copy.htm">http://www.ur.umich.edu/9798/Mar11_98/copy.htm</a> (Ten years old now) -- Cheers Chovynz