Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Web resource: Frequently Asked Questions about Copyright: Issues Affecting the U.S. Government

Because I'm going to be teachign copyirght during the spring 2010 term, this web site from CENDI is of interest to me, and may be of interest to you. “Frequently Asked Questions about Copyright: Issues Affecting the U.S. Government” was published on Oct. 8, 2008. It includes:
1.0 Glossary of Terms
2.0 Copyright Basics
3.0 U.S. Government Works
4.0 Works Created Under a Federal Contract or Grant
5.0 Use of Copyrighted Works
6.0 Applicable Copyright Legislation and Other Resources on the Internet

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1 comment:

B Klein said...

There are significant differences between works in the public domain and works of the federal government which need to be considered for digitization projects.

Title 17 USC Sec 403, "Notice of copyright: Publications incorporating United States Government works" provides incentives for identifying government works as such. The very existance of this provision suggests that Congress and the USG saw a need to distinguish USG works from both the public domain and from copyrighted works.

A possible reason lies in Title 17 USC §105 which has two parts. The first prohibits government copyright in works by government employees; the second allows government copyright ownership in the works of others. For a variety of reasons, agencies may choose to assert their copyright and reserve all or some rights.

See "Copyright Alert! Even U.S. Government Information May Be Copyrighted." April 2009, Searcher Magazine. www.infotoday.com/searcher/apr09/Klein.shtml

Bonnie Klein
Co-Chair, CENDI Copyright Working Group

5:33 PM

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