Although the 1973 ordinance was abrogated by of , which was itself abrogated by of the currently applicable , this did not lead to a renewal of the copyright of photographs which had already fallen into the public domain, because both the 1997 and the 2003 ordinances contained transitional provisions explicitly disallowing retroactive protection of out-of-copyright works.

In order to be hosted on Commons, all works must be in the public domain in the United States as well as in their source country. The copyright of all Algerian photographs published prior to 1987 had expired in Algeria on the U.S. date of restoration (April 19, 1998). Such photographs are thus currently in the public domain in the United States.

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