Wikipedia:Public domain status of official government works
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The public domain status of official government works is sometimes difficult to determine, but keeps coming up on Wikipedia again and again. There are some easy cases: works of the United States federal government, for example, are not protected by copyright and are thus in the public domain. The same does not hold in general for the works of other governments. Determining whether all works, or particular works, of a particular government are in the public domain requires research and possibly even legal advice.
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[edit] Open issues
[edit] Template:PD-CAGov
Works of the state government of California. TfD debate is archived here.
Duk inquired about this matter [1]:
- I just got the following email after talking to several State of California lawyers:
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- ...The ownership issue disclosed on each State website puts the "information" contained on the website in the public domain. However, this does not include copyrightable materials such as photographs. Photographs taken by State of California workers while on State of California business are owned by the State of California, and should not be used commercially without State of California approval. Other photographs taken by and owned by individuals that may be on a State website should not be used commercially without the owner's approval.
[edit] Template:PD-FLGov
Statute and case law show that public records (with a wide definition) cannot be copyrighted without unless an exception is granted by the state legislature. See template for details. --ChrisRuvolo (t) 01:16, 4 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Closed issues
[edit] U.S. State governments
- (deletion log)
- see above for CA
- — PD?
- (deletion log archive)
- (TfD)
- (TfD)
- (TfD)
- (TfD)
- (TfD)
