The original Russian Wikipedia page for this file is here (in Russian).
I don't know the original source of this file. The actual artist is probably lost in the mists of history, and the Russian page for this file seems a bit unclear to me. It was apparently obtained from the entity vector-images.com (in Russian) (which sells graphics). But then geraldika.ru (in Russian) and gerbovnik.ru (in Russian) are also mentioned as sources. It's all rather confusing. It was uploaded by user Volkov onto the Russian Wikipedia in 2007.
As to the copyright status: on the Russian Wikipedia, the file permission is described as falling under the Commons template {{PD-RU-exempt}}, which says
- "Not protected by copyright according to Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation Number 230-FZ of December 18, 2006", under Article 1259 (Objects of Copyright), Items 5 and 6.
Reading the items, it doesn't look to me like they exactly apply to this file, but the Russians apparently think so, and they would know I suppose.
But there is also this:
- "This work is in the public domain in Russia and the United States under the joint effect of Article 1256 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and United States law, since it was published (or made public) before November 7, 1917 (New Style) in the territory of the Russian Empire."
There's lots more, including a reference to the template here (in Russian) but the bottom line is that the Russians claim it's in the public domain. Herostratus (talk) 04:21, 7 October 2010 (UTC)
