Re: State Susceptibility to Suit for Copyright and Patent Infringement

On Wed, 29 Jul 1998, Pat Sloane <patsloane[_at_]aol.com> wrote:
>
> The angel stamp being sold by the US Postal Service is a detail from a
> painting by Raphael (The Sistine Madonna) that I believe is owned by the
> Vatican.

The physical painting may be, but the painting as a work is going to be public domain as far as copyright is concerned.

> Assuming that no permission has been sought, and no royalties are
> being paid, am I correct in assuming -- from the drift of the State
> susceptibility thread -- that the Postal Service would be immune to
> suit as a branch of the US government?

I doubt it. First, the Postal Service is a quasi-private corporation, not part of the U.S. government. This is how it's treated for purposes of authorship under section 105 (i.e. works of the USPS are covered by copyright, notwithstanding the fact that section 105 says that works of the U.S. government are not). I don't see why it wouldn't be treated the same way (in a copyright context) as a defendant. Second, even if the USPS was deemed to be part of the U.S. government for immunity purposes, the U.S. has waived its immunity for copyright infringement (as far as damages go; not injunctions) in 28 U.S.C. 1498.

--
Terry Carroll       |    
Santa Clara, CA     |    
carroll[_at_]tjc.com     |       
Modell delendus est |