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A work of the United States government, as defined by the United States copyright law, is "a work prepared by an officer or employee" of the federal government "as part of that person's official duties."〔 "A 'work of the United States Government' is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties."〕 In general, under section 105 of the Copyright Act, such works are not entitled to domestic copyright protection under U.S. law. This act only applies to U.S. domestic copyright as that is the extent of U.S. federal law. The U.S. government asserts that it can still hold the copyright to those works in other countries.〔House Report No. 94-1476, p.59 ("The prohibition on copyright protection for United States Government works is not intended to have any effect on protection of these works abroad. Works of the governments of most other countries are copyrighted. There are no valid policy reasons for denying such protection to United States Government works in foreign countries, or for precluding the Government from making licenses for the use of its works abroad.").〕 Publication of an otherwise protected work by the U.S. government does not put that work in the public domain. For example, government publications may include works copyrighted by a contractor or grantee; copyrighted material assigned to the U.S. Government; or copyrighted information from other sources. == History == The first Federal statute concerning copyright in government publications was the Printing Law enacted in 1895.〔Copyright in Government Publications, in: (Copyright Law Revision: Studies Prepared for the Subcomm. on Patents, Trademarks, and Copyrights of the Senate Comm. on the Judiciary ), 86th Cong., 2d Sess. 29-30 (Comm. Print 1961)(Study 33), pp. 23-42.〕 Section 52 of that Act provided that copies of "Government Publications" could not be copyrighted. Prior to 1895, no court decision had occasion to consider any claim of copyright on behalf of the Government itself. Courts had, however, considered whether copyright could be asserted as to the text of laws, court decisions, governmental rules, etc., and concluded that such material were not subject to copyright as a matter of public policy.〔 But other material prepared for State Governments by their employees, notably the headnotes, syllabi, annotations, etc. prepared by court reporters, had been held copyrightable on behalf of the States.〔 The Copyright Act of 1909 was the first copyright statute to address government publications. Section 7 of the Act (later codified as Section 8 of title 17 U.S.C.) provided that "No copyright shall subsist * * * in any publication of the United States Government, or any reprint, in whole or in part, thereof: * * *." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Copyright status of work by the U.S. government」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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