At 12:45 AM 11/18/00 -0500, Thatcher family wrote: >One further point, anything found in a government document or official >government record is automatically public knowledge and part of the public >domain. On Saturday, November 18, 2000, Mike and Karen Goad <[email protected]> wrote: > 1. This is true for works of the United States Government. It is NOT > true for other countries and it is not true works of the United States in > other countries. > > The prohibition on copyright protection for United States > Government works is not intended to have any effect on protection > of these works abroad. Works of the governments of most other > countries are copyrighted. There are no valid policy reasons for > denying such protection to United States Government works in > foreign countries, or for precluding the Government from making > licenses for the use of its works abroad. > Historical and Revision Notes > House Report No. 94-1476 I wonder if this is "the law" or if it is just some House committee's musings on the subject? The copyright code says simply: Title 17 § 105. Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government, but the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise. Comment: In 1968, the Standard Reference Data Act provided an exception to Section 105, Pub. L. No. 90-396, 82 Stat. 339. Section 6 of that act amended title 15 of the United States Code by authorizing the Secretary of Commerce, at 15 U.S.C. 290e, to secure copyright and renewal thereof on behalf of the United States as author or proprietor "in all or any part of any standard reference data which he prepares or makes available under this chapter," and to "authorize the reproduction and publication thereof by others." See also section 105(f) of the Transitional and Supplementary Provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, in Part I of the Appendix. Pub. L. No. 94-553, 90 Stat. 2541. [(f) Subsection (a) of section 290(e) of title 15 is amended by deleting the phrase "section 8" and inserting in lieu thereof the phrase "section 105".] If U.S. government works, other than the one exception described, are declared by law to be uncopyrightable, then it would seem to me that they would not hold copyright in other countries, either. In other words, once declared public domain in the originating country, public domain in every country, or the Berne Convention wouldn't have a standard basis for providing protection. If the U.S. government wanted free use in the U.S. but not overseas, they would have to declare copyright but then allow free use by its citizens. Anyone know any more? S R C A cott obert ranston nderson [email protected]

At 09:30 AM 11/20/00 -0500, Scott Anderson wrote: > > The prohibition on copyright protection for United States > > Government works is not intended to have any effect on protection > > of these works abroad. Works of the governments of most other > > countries are copyrighted. There are no valid policy reasons for > > denying such protection to United States Government works in > > foreign countries, or for precluding the Government from making > > licenses for the use of its works abroad. > > Historical and Revision Notes > > House Report No. 94-1476 > >I wonder if this is "the law" or if it is just some House committee's >musings on the subject? The information which I quoted is from the United States Code site's page on 17 USC Sec. 105 at http://uscode.house.gov/uscode-cgi/fastweb.exe?getdoc+uscview+t17t20+9+5++%27fair%20use%27 The Historical and Revision Notes that accompany the code is often a good reference for studying what Congress's intent was. It is NOT the law, of course, but it is part of the bases for the law, as I understand it. Most of the code, which I regularly reference, can be accessed from a link on my web site entitled "Linked Index to the U.S. Copyight Code." My site is at http://www.cswnet.com/~sbooks/genealogy/copyright/copyright.htm Mike