Re: Copyright of Public Records and Web Pages

On Fri, 18 Oct 1996, Dean DeBolt <UWF.LIB#u#PO.ddebolt[_at_]neptune.icd.uwf.edu> wrote:
>
> A question has risen at the University of West Florida. Under
> state law, the majority of university documents are public records.
> Several staff (unaware of the impact of public records laws) have
> suggested that we still have the ability to copyright materials.
> And several staff, placing these public records on University web
> pages, are now attaching copyright notices to them.
>
> Is anyone on the list aware of whether public records can be
> copyrighted? And especially when such are placed on a web page
> (without graphics), is a copyright notice applicable?
 

State records, presumably, can be. There was a thread on this topic a while back. However, I would argue that the state, in your case, has waived its copyrights. The question is how far does this extend (do professors lose the copyrights in their published papers or books, for example).

Here in Washington there was a case that held that materials relating to NSF proposals was public information and not exempt under our state's Freedom of Information Act.

Harold Federow
<hfederow[_at_]u.washington.edu> Received on Mon Oct 21 1996 - 23:51:51 GMT