Re: Copyright of Government Sponsored Work

On Thu, Aug 26, 1999, Stephen Fishman <sfish55[_at_]yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 25 Aug 1999, Jerald Gnuschke <jerald.gnuschke[_at_]nokia.com> wrote:
> >
> > On 18 August 1999, Peter Groves <petergroves[_at_]compuserve.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > And what about the position in US copyright law of works of foreign
> > > governments (eg Crown copyright works)? The question was posed to
> > > me a while ago and I was unable to come up with one.
> >
> > My guess is national treatment applies. No copyright for foreign
> > national government works but perhaps copyright for the works of
> > the states of foreign countries.
>
> I don't think this is right. Foreign laws and court decisions are
> likely in the public domain in the U.S., but foreign governments may
> claim copyright in other works.

Yes, the British Government has asserted crown copyright through out the world in the nautical charts published by HMSO. They cover a wide variety of waters, not just waters around GB. But the Hydrographic Office (or whatever it was called) was "reinvented" as a government corporation during the latter part of the Thatcher government. It would be interesting to learn how that affected the status of the charts.

It is the position of at least some U.S. government experts that U.S. Government publications can be copyright in foreign countries that allow copyright in publications of the local government on the theory that the statutory prohibition in Title 17 applies only to U.S. copyrights, and national treatment requires it in the foreign country.

James Brennan
<brennandot[_at_]prodigy.net> Received on Fri Aug 27 1999 - 13:52:26 GMT