Question about public domain works in Google Books with a Harvard library example (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Victor Steinbok]

I meant to say "are not AUTOMATICALLY in the public domain"...

     VS-)

On 11/2/2011 6:20 PM, Ken Hirsch wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 7:42 PM, Victor Steinbok<aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I know he was an engineer and not a lawyer, but he seems to have got the
>> government documents issue wrong. Government documents are not in the
>> public domain, but they must be made available to the public (not quite
>> the same thing, as it turns out). The question is not "who is the author
>> and who owns the copyright?" but "Does 'available to the public' include
>> reproduction by third parties?". The answer generally seems to be "yes",
>> but it's not a clear-cut issue.
>>
> For works "prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S.
> government<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States>
> as
> part of that person's official duties", there is no copyright protection in
> the United States. That is a specific part of the copyright statute.
>
> There are court rulings that deal with other government documents, though.

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