This file is in the public domain because the Marshall Islands have very limited laws on copyright and this work does not fall under them. The Marshall Islands are not party to any relevant international convention or treaty regarding copyright (details, overview).
For this template to be applicable, it is not enough that a work be published in the Marshall Islands — the author must be a Marshallese citizen and not have any other citizenship, and they must be ordinarily resident in the Marshall Islands at the time of publication. If these factors are not all met, then the work can still have an enforceable copyright outside of the Marshall Islands. Additionally, unpublished works can be the subject of copyright outside the Marshall Islands.
Per U.S. Circ. 38a, the following countries are not participants in the Berne Convention or Universal Copyright Convention and there is no presidential proclamation restoring U.S. copyright protection to works of these countries on the basis of reciprocal treatment of the works of U.S. nationals or domiciliaries:
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Iran, Iraq, Marshall Islands, Palau, Somalia, Somaliland, and South Sudan.
As such, works published by citizens of these countries in these countries are usually not subject to copyright protection outside of these countries. Hence, such works may be in the public domain in most other countries worldwide.
However:
Works published in these countries by citizens or permanent residents of other countries that are signatories to the Berne Convention or any other treaty on copyright will still be protected in their home country and internationally as well as locally by local copyright law (if it exists).
Similarly, works published outside of these countries within 30 days of publication within these countries will also usually be subject to protection in the foreign country of publication. When works are subject to copyright outside of these countries, the term of such copyright protection may exceed the term of copyright inside them.
Unpublished works from these countries may be fully copyrighted.
A work from one of these countries may become copyrighted in the United States under the URAA if the work's home country enters a copyright treaty or agreement with the United States and the work is still under copyright in its home country.
Marshall Islands has enacted Unauthorized Copies of Recorded Materials Act, 1991 which came into force on 30 September 1991, it grants some Marshallese works limited, internal, intellectual property rights over sound and audio-visual recordings only.Note: As per Commons policy, this tag alone is not sufficient. You also need to supply a tag that describes why the work is public domain in its country of origin.
Captions
Map of Local Traffic Regulations in the Marshall Islands