Re: Copyright Status of Press Releases

On Mon, 9 Aug 1999, Julie A. Cason <jcason[_at_]u.washington.edu> wrote:
>
> I've been thoroughly enjoying my time as a lurker on this list, but am
> now ready to join the fray with a question to which I thought I knew the
> answer (but can't find substantiation for).
>
> Are press releases officially considered to be public domain? (Their
> entire purpose is to be quoted from and redistributed.)

Depends on the author of course, but in most cases, by the actual definition of public domain, the answer is no (in the U.S. at least). The reason for this is that under U.S.law, few things go automatically into the public domain. Some examples of things that do are press releases by the President, a Senator, or a Representative. That is because of the specific exemption of works of the U.S. govt. from copyright. I would think though that the First Lady would be borderline here, since she is arguably not an employee of the government (but probably her speechwriter is).

What there is in most cases is a fairly wide implied license when you are dealing with works otherwise protected by copyright.

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The preceding was not a legal opinion, and is not my employer's.
Original portions Copyright 1999 Bruce E. Hayden,all rights reserved
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Bruce E. Hayden                      bhayden[_at_]acm.org
Phoenix, Arizona                     bhayden[_at_]ieee.org
                                     bhayden[_at_]copatlaw.com