Works by the U.S. Govt may not be eligible for copyright, but works by other jurisdictions may be. I have seen South Carolina publications bearing copyright notices. The state did not protect its ideas or even its words. You could retype the whole thing if you chose to do so. But the printer -- a private company -- held a copyright. You could not use his printed images as camera-ready copy for reprints. Most U.S. Govt publications come from the taxpayer-funded Government Printing Office. NCUNION-D-request@rootsweb.com wrote: > Subject: > > NCUNION-D Digest Volume 99 : Issue 62 > > Today's Topics: > #1 [NCUNION-L] Re: Copyright Basics [Louise Pettus <lpettus@cetlink.net] > > Administrivia: > To unsubscribe from NCUNION-D, send a message to > > NCUNION-D-request@rootsweb.com > > that contains in the body of the message the command > > unsubscribe > > and no other text. No subject line is necessary, but if your software > requires one, just use unsubscribe in the subject, too. > > ______________________________ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Subject: [NCUNION-L] Re: Copyright Basics > Date: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 12:10:38 -0500 > From: Louise Pettus <lpettus@cetlink.net> > To: NCUNION-L@rootsweb.com > > The Library of Congress puts out a circular they title > COPYRIGHT BASICS. On Page 5 there is this statement: > "Works by the U. S. Government are not eligible for > copyright protection. . . ." > > Obviously, the Federal Censuses would meet the above > definition (they are not copyrightable). Also, those > helpful pamphlets the government puts out are > not copyrighted either. > > Louise Pettus