[cc-community] US Federal sites claiming copyright restrictions
Chris Watkins
chriswaterguy at appropedia.org
Mon Feb 11 18:37:17 EST 2008
On Feb 12, 2008 10:19 AM, Rich Vázquez <rich.vazquez at gmail.com> wrote:
> I believe the TVA statements protects the public from publishing or
> acting under the guise of TVA.
For the trademarks, logos and service marks, that's fair enough, but the
vague reference to copyrighted material gives the impression that anything
on the site shouldn't be touched, without actually saying so.
> Some government agencies produce web sites with works created by others,
> especially images. Rights to photographs, etc. might be donated or
> purchased from individuals or non-profits which retain rights to the works.
>
Yes - but other US federal sites I've seen deal with this in a much more
open way - they have a clear statement to the effect that everything is
public domain unless it's marked as copyright. E.g.
http://www.usaid.gov/faqs.html#q15 - "Unless a copyright is indicated,
information on this Web site is in the public domain and may be reproduced,
published or otherwise used without USAID's permission."
>
> --
> --
> Rich Vázquez
>
> On Feb 11, 2008 5:14 PM, Chris Watkins <chriswaterguy at appropedia.org>
> wrote:
>
> > Can anyone lend some insight or legal perspectives into sites such as
> > the following two, which claim copyright even though they're US federal
> > sites - an agency in one case, a federally owned corporation in the other.
> >
> > The EPA.gov site, which is federal and should be public domain (assuming
> > it's the work of federal employee), states that "Commercial use of the
> > documents available from this server may be protected under the U.S. and
> > Foreign Copyright Laws". This is worded very vaguely, but I assume the only
> > way it could make sense is if a third party held the copyright - in which
> > case the permission to distribute or copy doesn't make sense. The full
> > statement is:
> >
> > "Information presented on this WWW site is considered public information
> > and may be distributed or copied. The U.S. Government retains a
> > nonexclusive, royalty-free license to publish or reproduce these documents,
> > or allow others to do so, for U.S. Government purposes. These documents
> > may be freely distributed and used for non-commercial, scientific and
> > educational purposes. Commercial use of the documents available from this
> > server may be protected under the U.S. and Foreign Copyright Laws.
> > Individual documents on this server may have different copyright conditions,
> > and that will be noted in those documents."
> >
> > (This is for a regional sub-website of the EPA, as I could find no
> > statement for the site as a whole. But I think the same principle applies.)
> >
> > Another confusing site is tva.gov - although TVA is a federally owned
> > corporation, the notice at http://www.tva.gov/disclaim.htm states: 'All
> > trademarks, logos, service marks, and copyrighted material contained on this
> > Web site ("marks") are the property of TVA'. (A bit unclear - they don't
> > specify what material actually is copyright, and no copyright notices were
> > found, in a brief browse. )
> >
> > Both TVA and EPA have content we'd love to use on Appropedia (about
> > sustainability and renewable energy) but obviously we can't do so if there's
> > any uncertainty about whether it's public domain.
> >
> > Chris
> >
> > --
> > Chris Watkins (a.k.a. Chriswaterguy)
> >
> > Founding admin at Appropedia.org, the wiki of:
> > - International development
> > - Anti-poverty strategies
> > - Sustainability
> > - Appropriate technology
> > - Collaboration for practical solutions
> >
> > Founding director, Appropedia Foundation, 501(c)(3)
> >
> > Buy online through http://appropedia.maatiam.com (Amazon, eBay and more)
> > and a percentage of your purchase goes to Appropedia - at no extra cost to
> > you.
> >
> > The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment. - Tim Wirth
> >
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> >
> >
>
>
>
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--
Chris Watkins (a.k.a. Chriswaterguy)
Founding admin at Appropedia.org, the wiki of:
- International development
- Anti-poverty strategies
- Sustainability
- Appropriate technology
- Collaboration for practical solutions
Founding director, Appropedia Foundation, 501(c)(3)
Buy online through http://appropedia.maatiam.com (Amazon, eBay and more) and
a percentage of your purchase goes to Appropedia - at no extra cost to you.
The economy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the environment. - Tim Wirth
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