* Sean Kellogg <skell...@gmail.com> [090118 19:37]: > The US has done all it can on this via its domestic laws... the relevent > section being: > > ---------- > ยง 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. > ---------- > > That is the only source of copyright that the United States has control over.
No, there could for example also a law that the US government is not allowed to enforce copyright of government made works outside of the USA. Or at least some promise not to do. > But, by the same token, a government can also declare that the [...] Of course governments can do many stupid things (some people may even claim copyright at all is evil and stupid), but my question was not about some theoretical country, but about the current state of the world. I'm not a layer but I'm not sure about Germany's law and perhaps it might be similar in many other countries might do the same. Does anyone have any information about if such US goverment works are really free outside the US? Or can someone try to understand what in http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000105----000-notes.html is the meaning of "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." and explain? Hochachtungsvoll, Bernhard R. Link -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-legal-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
