Re: good news for my PhD

[Graham Percival]

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 08:45:38PM +0000, Anthony W. Youngman wrote:
> In message <address@hidden>, Graham Percival  
> <address@hidden> writes
>> I believe that source code is only un-copyrightable if it's done
>> for a certain kinds of US government contract.  (there's some law
>> about government materials being public domain, although that
>> obviously doesn't apply to everything that the government funds
>> indirectly)
>> Granted, this case is confusing.
>
> Being pedantic, but this most definitely is NOT true. Works created  
> by/for the US government are subject to the Berne treaty, and are  
> copyright. However, the US government is enjoined by US law from  
> enforcing copyright. So you can use those works without fear of suit.
>
> That's very different from Public Domain, and the US government could  
> conceivably sue in a foreign (to the US) court.

Fascinating!  I've always heard it as "not copyrightable", but the
wikipedia page (I know, I know, wikipedia isn't reliable) also
makes it clear that there is no **domestic** copyright protection
for such works.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government

Cheers,
- Graham