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

Mon Nov 28 15:29:36 UTC 2011

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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