From owner-freebsd-chat Sat Jun 9 12:37:53 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from smtp-1.enteract.com (smtp-1.enteract.com [207.229.143.33]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 14B9337B401 for ; Sat, 9 Jun 2001 12:37:51 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dscheidt@tumbolia.com) Received: from shell-1.enteract.com (shell-1.enteract.com [207.229.143.40]) by smtp-1.enteract.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 930D6664A; Sat, 9 Jun 2001 14:37:37 -0500 (CDT) Date: Sat, 9 Jun 2001 14:37:37 -0500 (CDT) From: David Scheidt X-X-Sender: To: Arun Sharma Cc: Brett Glass , Subject: RE: GPL for govt funded/developed projects ? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Sat, 9 Jun 2001, Arun Sharma wrote: :> :If it's a work for hire, the law considers it to have been produced BY :> :the government. It has all the rights to the work that exist, and is :> :compelled to relinquish them by putting the work in the public domain. :> :> Well, no. 17 USC 105 : :> :> Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of :> the United States Government, but the United States Government is not :> precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by :> assignment, bequest, or otherwise. :> :> (the Commerce Department produces some standard reference data that is :> covered by copyright, because another statute says it is.) : :In this case, www.sandia.gov seems to be a part of the US government. My :understanding is that people who worked on this project are US government :employees. So their work becomes a work of the government, doesn't it ? If they're Federal government employees, yes. If they're contractors, it's probably true. : :How is "work for hire" legally different from "work of the" government ? It's not much. But not all work done for the government is work for hire. Quite a bit is standard contract work. The Feds usually acquire the code as part of the contract, though. -- dscheidt@tumbolia.com Bipedalism is only a fad. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message