Are there any general rules on copyright protection for US Gov't documents? I know GAO documents contain a statement saying 'not subject to copyright protection.' Is this generally true for publications from other Gov't agencies?
There are some GAO documents I would like to have availalbe to my website visitors. Rather than linking to the GAO site (and losing traffic), I would like to download the documents and host them on my site. I assume that's OK since they're not copyright protected.
Muskegon -
Generally, copyright protection is not available
for any work of the United States Government. Exclusions may apply to certain agencies (National
Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) and the U.S. Postal Services for example) and the government may receive and hold copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.
If you want to verify if specific information is copyrighted, you can read more here: How to Investigate the Copyright Status of a Work.
NicoleD | Former Moderator | 3/20/2010 - 1:39 pm
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