[Open-access] Copyright for papers published by US or Commonwealth employees

[Ruben Molina]

On Tue, Apr 29, 2014 at 5:44 AM, Peter Murray-Rust <pm286 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> [posted to Open Definition list as well since they have a lot of
> jurisdiction knowledge]
>
> from a correspondent...
>
> "I have noticed on a few ACS journal papers the following text:
>
> Published by American Chemical Society. Copyright © American Chemical
> Society. However, no copyright claim is made to original U.S. Government
> works, or works produced by employees of any Commonwealth realm Crown
> government in the course of their duties.
>

IANAL, but I read this notice as a copyright claim plus a disclaimer.

Copyright is claimed on the work by American Chemical Society (it was
transfered to them by the authors) *unless* it was developed in the
course of their duties by (a) employees of the US Government
(copyright was not claimed by the US government in the US territory,
therefore it was not transfered to ACS), or (b) employees of the
Commonwealth governments (Crown copyright is claimed, and it is not
transfered to ACS)

>
> So it sounds like that there exists no copyright, and therefore the ability
> to freely distribute the text for papers with this statement. The odd thing
> is the inclusion of the Commonwealth in this. Am I interpreting things
> correctly?
>

No.

For US government works no copyright is claimed *in the US*. "The U.S.
government asserts that it can still hold the copyright to those works
in other countries."  [1]

And for the Commonwealth works, copyright *is claimed* by the Crown.
"The rights in a contribution prepared by an employee of a UK
government department, agency or other Crown body as part of his/her
official duties, or which is an official government publication,
belong to the Crown" [2].   "The work of Canadian or Australian
Government employees is automatically subject to Crown Copyright" [2].
 Looks like also New Zealand, with some exceptions [3].

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government
[2] http://authorservices.wiley.com/bauthor/faqs_copyright.asp#1.7
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_copyright#Crown_copyright_by_country

Regards,
Ruben