[pd-discuss] Happy Thanksgiving! Presidents and Turkeys...

[Peter B. Hirtle]

Just an opinion, but you have stepped into one of the quagmires of copyright (and why it is so hard to say whether something is in the public domain).

While the law was clearly intended to give agencies the right to protect U.S. government copyrights outside of the U.S., many agencies do not know this and prefer to treat all of their material  as being in the public domain everywhere.  Foreign copyright laws may also have a role to play.  For example, if a country follows the "rule of the shorter term," I suppose it might be possible for that country to argue that a work that is public domain in the US is also public domain in the foreign country.

As for how NASA licenses its works abroad, I would suggest you ask them.  It is not at all clear from the guidelines you cite below.

Bottom line: while it would be nice to pretend that everything from authors who died more than 70 years ago is in the public domain, that realm is not nearly that neat and orderly.

Peter

> -----Original Message-----
> From: mradamrgreen at googlemail.com
> [mailto:mradamrgreen at googlemail.com] On Behalf Of Adam Green
> Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2011 5:37 AM
> To: Public Domain discuss list; Peter B. Hirtle; okfn-discuss
> Subject: Re: [pd-discuss] Happy Thanksgiving! Presidents and Turkeys...
> 
> Many thanks for bringing our attention to this Peter. Post has been changed
> accordingly.
> 
> Do you know what the status of NASA images would be beyond the U.S.?
> From what I can tell there seems to be no limitation to the U.S. in there
> copyright policy:
> http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/policies.html#Guidelines - but it would be good to
> get your opinion!
> 
> 
> > From: Peter B. Hirtle <pbh6 at cornell.edu>
> > Date: Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 4:29 PM
> > Subject: Re: [pd-discuss] Happy Thanksgiving! Presidents and Turkeys...
> > To: Public Domain discuss list <pd-discuss at lists.okfn.org>,
> > okfn-discuss <okfn-discuss at lists.okfn.org>
> >
> >
> > The caption says "Images via Wikimedia Commons, and being works of the
> > U.S. federal government are in the public domain."  The images are in
> > the public domain in the United States, but they are not in the public
> > domain in the rest of the world.  According to the legislative history
> > for Section 105 of the Copyright Act:
> >
> >
> >
> > 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.
> >
> >
> >
> > I bring this matter up because it is a reminder of how the
> > territoriality of copyright makes it difficult to talk about a work
> > being in the public domain.  As we get close to "public domain day,"
> > it is important to make it clear that just because an author died
> > before 1942 does not mean that her works are in the public domain.
> >
> >
> >
> > Public domain resources should either limit themselves to works that
> > are truly in the public domain everywhere or they should make clear
> > the geographical limitations on their assessment of public domain
> > status.
> >
> >
> >
> > Peter Hirtle
> >
> >
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: pd-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org
> > [mailto:pd-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Gray
> > Sent: Thursday, November 24, 2011 3:14 PM
> > To: okfn-discuss; Public Domain discuss list
> > Subject: [pd-discuss] Happy Thanksgiving! Presidents and Turkeys...
> >
> >
> >
> > http://publicdomainreview.org/2011/11/24/presidents-and-turkeys/
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> >
> > Jonathan Gray
> >
> >
> >
> > Community Coordinator
> >
> > The Open Knowledge Foundation
> >
> > http://www.okfn.org
> >
> >
> >
> > http://twitter.com/jwyg
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Jonathan Gray
> >
> > Community Coordinator
> > The Open Knowledge Foundation
> > http://www.okfn.org
> >
> > http://twitter.com/jwyg
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Adam Green
> 
> Editor, The Public Domain Review
> http://publicdomainreview.org/
> 
> The Open Knowledge Foundation
> http://okfn.org/