For Approval: TVA Open Source License

[Tom "spot" Callaway]

On 09/11/2009 02:04 PM, Carroll, James Ritchie wrote:
> 1) TVA, as a government entity, cannot hold a copyright per Title 17 U.S. Code.

Perhaps this is a silly question, but I was under the impression that:

A) Only the copyright holder can impose terms or grant rights for a
work, and since TVA does not hold the copyright here, they should not be
able to apply a license to that work.

B) Works that are "prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S.
government as part of that person's official duties" are automatically
in the public domain by law, unless they considered "work made for hire"
(contract work) (17 U.S.C. § ch1:
http://uscode.house.gov/download/pls/17C1.txt)

~tom