Template talk:PD-USGov

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[edit] US States

There's a pretty fundamental problem with the way U.S. Government copyrights are being characterized here. (No, I don't work for the government. Yes, I am a copyright lawyer.) The problem is that 17 U.S.C. sec. 105 applies domestically, but under TRIPs, Berne and so forth, copyrights are entitled to national treatment. That means that 17 U.S.C. sec. 105 has no legal effect abroad, and the protection offered internationally under the conventions only places copyrights on par with homegrown copyrights, meaning that the protection offered to U.S. government coprights internationally is not protection "under this title," in the words of 105.

Long story short: while conventionally the U.S. has not asserted international copyright ownership, it isn't true that (1) it is in the public domain (because the statute doesn't purport to release it into the public domain, but merely denies domestic protection under U.S. law, which has no effect internationally because of the way the agreements have been written) or that (2) it applies internationally (because the domestic treatment standard removes the international effect of what is being used as the basis for the assertion).

There's precedent for this, too, and calling the Copyright Office should bring more details on it, but Japan called and asked for special permission to reprint the Starr Report. Although the Office found the question somewhat baffling (because they hadn't ever bothered to parse this out themselves until Japan's lawyers asked them to), they offered special, one-time permission to reprint the Starr report. In effect, they pulled something like a "judicial review"-style slight-of-hand trick and asserted the substance of what I'm articulating above. Junkmale 16:17, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

I would agree with the above on first reading; which public figures should we write to for this problem to be fixed? Also, are there exceptions for works of US states, as noted on the template, or perhaps matching laws on the state level? This can be a blurry distinction for some agencies that are half state related and half federal. GChriss 21:15, 23 June 2006 (UTC)
Those issues would have to be handled as they present themselves. There is, of course, no single blanket template for all copyrights. --tomf688 (talk - email) 11:38, 26 June 2006 (UTC)
If you understand Japanese, see also ja:アメリカ合衆国政府の著作物#アメリカ合衆国外での扱い. --Mitsuo 03:51, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
I don't understand Japanese ;) What's that say? Junkmale 14:11, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
There are indeed blurry distinctions, even among federal agencies such as NASA (which subcontracts so much of its work that huge chunks of things you'd expect to find available aren't actually owned by the agency). I noticed in the revision history that the definition was reverted back to the incorrect "this applies worldwide" version with the note that this is "commonly accepted here." This is precisely the type of revision that gives us (as Wikipedians) a bad name. If you want an incorrect definion on the template, by all means, revert it again, but for a community that purports to care about copyright violations, the absolute refusal to accept the basic untruth of this template indicates that the community is ripe to be sued for copyright violations of this nature. Normally I would say that is unlikely, but with the state of the Justice Department as it is, I'm not sure it's such a remote possibility; and when and if that day comes, I'll be unable to defend Wikipedia, because as things stand, Wikipedia likely should be sued, because it's publishing works worldwide without a license. Junkmale 14:11, 5 July 2006 (UTC)
I am late to this discussion, but I have a question. When NASA or CIA on their web site says that their stuff is not protected by the copyright (see NASA's statement and CIA World Fact book's FAQ), they do not say that their statement applies only to the U.S. citizen or derivative works created within the U.S. It seems unconditional, and therefore effective as a statement of their will that they will not try to claim damages in court. Do you think that these statements are just reiteration of the (U.S.'s) statutory provision as opposed to global license to treat the material as public domain materials? Tomos 01:45, 26 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] links to translations not visible

I've noticed that links to some translations, such as the french one, aren't showing up. What's the deal? The code is there, but the links aren't visible... --Zantastik 19:03, 23 July 2006 (UTC)

Its 2007 and French now shows up but it s complete misplaced in the alphabet - can someone move behind Español! 70.156.246.129 02:03, 2 May 2007 (UTC)
I aphebetized the languages by language code, they should be fine now. -- Editor at Large • talk 02:07, 2 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] US territories and Commonweatlhs

Hello yall!

I have added the words 'territory' and 'commonwealth' to the T/P since it appears their stuff is c/righted as well. See the notices at these sites:

There are nine other territories. eight of them are in the Pacific and one is the Caribbean. There has never been a government on the islands, since they are no indigenous inhabitants. Here's a list of the islands & their previous and current owners (a glossary follows; links are to the en.wiki, UnFree sources are in bold):

  • BAKER: DOI; FWS, NWR
  • HOWLAND: DOI; FWS, NWR
  • JARVIS: DOI; FWS, NWR
  • KINGMAN: USN (to 2001); DOI; FWS, NWR
  • MIDWAY: USN (to 1993); DOI; FWS, NWR
  • JOHNSTON: JACADS (to 2000); DOI; FWS, NWR, USAF
  • WAKE: DOI, USAF, USA (unclear!)
  • PALMYRA: TNC; DOI; FWS, NWR, OIA
  • NAVASSA: USCG (to 1996); DOI; FWS, NWR

Glossary:

I hope this helps. Hoshie 08:10, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Polski's redlinked

Polski's become redlinked in the produced text. -- JHunterJ 21:00, 7 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] SVG Version

what such to substitute the image of the Great Seal for version SVG?

There's the Image:US-GreatSeal-Obverse.svg that could be used, but is it wise to substitute it? Do we gain anything from using the svg instead of the png? PatríciaR msg 23:20, 13 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] This might not be in the public domain worldwide

When looking at [1] under "2. Protection of foreign official material in the U.K." it seems that even if official works are public domain in the source countries, others are not required to release them from copyright in the same way, meaning that this might not be public domain in countries that neither accept the rule of the shorter term nor release official works from copyright. While raising awareness, I would like to request an edit before I do it myself.--Jusjih 03:56, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

In current form, it doesn't say it's in the public domain worldwide. What edit are you proposing? Superm401 - Talk 17:53, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Red link

Instead of a red link to the United States Postal Service, perhaps an inter-wiki link to Wikipedia could be added, as in United States Postal Service. I'm not an admin on Commons, or I would make the change myself. Best, Happyme22 (talk) 21:21, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

Indeed, good idea. I'll do it straight away, thanks! Patrícia msg 21:43, 17 August 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Esperanto

Please add Template:PD-USGov/eo. ThomasPusch (talk) 08:41, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

No need to request here, ask in the /lang subpage (as you already did) and add {{editprotected}} in order to get the attention from administrators. In any case, for the record, it was already added. --Waldir talk 23:17, 18 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Agencies

{{editprotected}} I think it should be noted that, despite being allegedly part of the Federal government, the national laboratories and the Post Office are not PD producers, see Template_talk:PD-USGov-DOE. 76.117.247.55 23:45, 2 April 2009 (UTC)

Do we really need to make note of everything that is not part of the federal government?  — Mike.lifeguard 19:24, 24 April 2009 (UTC)
X mark.svg Not done. Multichill (talk) 12:44, 15 May 2009 (UTC)

[edit] Translation in Bengali

I am from Bengali wikipedia. I want to translate all major template to Bengali language. What to do now.Jayanta Nath (talk) 14:17, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

[edit] PD Rationale

Please note the dicussion here explains/establishes why even images using this tag that the federal government claims are not PD are sometimes PD.--Elvey (talk) 21:36, 14 October 2009 (UTC)

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