Yes, but other opinions would be welcome too. This book is considered public domain due to being written and published by the government and there's no copyright mark. Tom Thatcher wrote: > > I see nothing has appeared on the list yet. Did you get a private answer? > > on 10/15/2000 10:44 PM, Jacqueline Baral at [email protected] > wrote: > > > My book in question has no copyright mark in it. This is what is written > > inside: > > Treasury Department > > United States Coast Guard > > United States > > Government Printing Office > > Washington : 1964 > > For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing > > Office > > Washington D.C., 20402 - Price $2.00 > > There are three points which I think are involved. First, any document > published before 1989 without proper notice of copyright is assumed to be > public domain. > > Second, I think that government works are automatically public domain since > they are public property. I know that government employees can not patent > new technologies developed as part of their jobs. I assume, although I have > not verified it, that the same is true of published works done as part of > someone's government job. > > However, the problem here is that Cmdr. Willoughby may have been acting as a > private citizen, especially since he was retired. The fact that the > government printing office printed to book does not necessarily mean it is a > government document. It would depend on the arrangement at the time--if he > was hired or contracted to write the book, then it becomes a "work for > hire," and the copyright would normally go to the person or company that > hired him, and since that would be the government, then it is likely to be > public domain. > > The third point is that the material you wish to transcribe (vessels' names > and fates) is public property--either the information was publicly > available, or it was in government records, which amounts to the same thing. > No matter how much effort went in to searching and compiling the > information, it can't be copyrighted. > > The bottom line is that Cmdr. Willoughby's unique and creative way of > telling the story of the Rum Wars is probably not copyright protected, and > the material in the appendix is definitely not copyrighted. > > -- > Tom Thatcher > [email protected] > <http://members.rpa.net/~thatcher> > <http://wc.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?db=thatcher-th>