> On Feb 21, 2025, at 2:23 PM, Florian Weimer <f...@deneb.enyo.de> wrote:
>
> * Paul Koning:
>
>>> On Feb 21, 2025, at 1:59 PM, Florian Weimer <f...@deneb.enyo.de> wrote:
>>>
>>> * James K. Lowden:
>>>
>>>> As I mentioned in other posts, IMO (IANAL) the copyright in
>>>> unimportant and probably unenforceable. The National Computing
>>>> Centre no longer exists, and the document was also published by NIST
>>>> which, as part of the US government, does not copyright its
>>>> publications.
>>>
>>> In the United States. It is generally assumed that the
>>> U.S. government can claim copyright on its works abroad.
>>
>> Really? That's puzzling. It's my understanding that works of the
>> United States are, by law, in the public domain.
>
> I don't think the rationale has changed since 1976:
>
> | Copyright Law Revision (House Report No. 94-1476)
>
> | 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.
>
> <https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Copyright_Law_Revision_(House_Report_No._94-1476)>
Interesting, thanks
> Regarding the claim about copyright held by foreign governments, I
> think this may have been a bit dubuous because functional works such
> as laws seem to be exempted in many countries. But I think the United
> States may be unique in extended this to software written by
> government employees.
It applies to all "works". For example, this is why photos taken by miltary
personnel that show up in newspapers are credited to the photographer but don't
mention copyright, because there isn't any. Simiilarly photos from NASA. Or
topographic maps. (Those are an example of the "copyright held by foreign
governments -- I remember "crown copyright" markings on Ordnance Maps in the
UK.)
paul
