Date: 20 Dec 2001 19:40:39 -0800 From: swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen) To: "Jeremy C. Reed" <reed@reedmedia.net> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: government and public domain (was Re: GPL nonsense: time to stop) Message-ID: <59pu59utoo.u59@localhost.localdomain> In-Reply-To: <Pine.LNX.4.43.0112192139110.26995-100000@pilchuck.reedmedia.net> References: <Pine.LNX.4.43.0112192139110.26995-100000@pilchuck.reedmedia.net>
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"Jeremy C. Reed" <reed@reedmedia.net> writes: > Where can I find official documents about requiring government > developed/sponsored software to be offered as public domain? > > (And maybe, in what cases, does it not have to be public domain?) According to http://groups.google.com/groups?q=+%22Copyright+Act+of+1976+(House+Report+94-1476%22+group:*gnu.misc.discuss*&hl=en&rnum=1&selm=950u2e%24rm8%241%40coward.ks.cc.utah.edu the House Judiciary Committee Report that accompanied the passage of the Copyright Act of 1976 (House Report 94-1476) says: The effect of section 105 is intended to place all works of the United States Government, published or unpublished, in the public domain. The poster has more to say about what you ask above. From http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/105.html Sec. 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 I snagged this off something, but don't know the source: "In accordance with Air Force Instruction (AFI) 51-303, it is not copyrighted, but is the property of the United States government." I haven't found the term "public domain" used often in the statutes and regulations I've seen, but the term seems to be well understood to mean "not under copyright, patent, trademark, trade sectret, etc." by people who seem to be familiar with IP. It occasionally is seen to mean only "announced or available to the public, under some or no conditions". I've noticed that much stuff that comes out of the Federal government is launder though small companies who are paid to produce the work and then are allows to retain ownership of the work which they license to the Feds. Nice work, if you can get it. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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