[License-discuss] [Non-DoD Source] Re: US Army Research Laboratory Open Source License proposal

[John Cowan]

Karan, Cem F CIV USARMY RDECOM ARL (US) scripsit:

> I honestly don't know.  The ARL lawyer I'm working with thinks that
> the USG may have foreign copyright, but he says that until it has been
> litigated and settled in court (and I don't know which country's courts
> that will be in), there's no way to know for certain.

Indeed, since foreign copyright is a matter of foreign law, the question
might be decided different ways in different countries.  At any rate,
Congress did not intend government copyright in foreign nations to
be affected.  See
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Copyright_Law_Revision_(House_Report_No._94-1476)
which says in the discussion of Section 105:

    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.

The corresponding Senate report at
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Copyright_Law_Revision_(Senate_Report_No._94-473)
uses exactly the same words.

-- 
John Cowan          http://www.ccil.org/~cowan        cowan at ccil.org
Ambassador Trentino: I've said enough. I'm a man of few words.
Rufus T. Firefly: I'm a man of one word: scram!    --Duck Soup