[cc-community] US Federal sites claiming copyright restrictions

Rich Vázquez rich.vazquez at gmail.com
Mon Feb 11 20:50:28 EST 2008


I absolutely agree with the "shoulds"  of the tone and that they should be
more explicit to encourage the fact that it's open for usage.  Frankly, I
think this is influenced by:
1) The tone of the agency, and as we know some people have been stationed in
agencies even though they have argued against what they stand for.  Those
who want to spread their mission the most tend to be the most open.
2) Possibly the tone of the person doing the actual content deployment and
the hyper attitude towards copyright some webmaster and designers tend to
have at times.

It would be nice if along with requiring public domain access an explicit
statement of access and openness was required as well.

I think the VistaWeb system (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VistA_Web) was
originally released due to lawsuit or FOIA request, but once it was out it
flourished.  I think the owners didn't mind, but the lack of openness in
their worldview was enough to hinder it for quite some time.

On Feb 11, 2008 5:37 PM, Chris Watkins <chriswaterguy at appropedia.org> wrote:

> 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> cc-community mailing list
> cc-community at lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/cc-community
>
>


-- 
--
Rich Vázquez
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