except see for example
http://www.cendi.gov/publications/04-8copyright.html#317
3.1.7 Does the Government have copyright protection in U.S. Government
works in other countries?
Yes, the copyright exclusion for works of the U.S. Government is not
intended to have any impact on protection of these works abroad (S. REP. NO.
473, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 56 (1976)). Therefore, the U.S. Government may
obtain protection in other countries depending on the treatment of
government works by the national copyright law of the particular country.
Copyright is sometimes asserted by U.S. Government agencies outside the
United States.
best to be careful
George T. Willingmyre, P.E.
President GTW Associates
-----Original Message-----
From: Thierry Moreau
Sent: Friday, October 04, 2013 8:35 AM
To: Dearlove, Christopher (UK)
Cc: ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org
Subject: Re: NIST documents
Dearlove, Christopher (UK) wrote:
One draft I'm working on [...]
(Of course I haven't been able to check the copyright on [NIST documents
...)
As a author of IT-related documents, you should be aware that, by its
constitution plus long lasting tradition, the US government "works of
authorship" have no copyright claims on them. The principle being that
"we, the people" paid for a civil servant to make a write-up, nobody can
claim intellectual property. Maybe the openness of the Internet owes a
lot to this tradition.
So, NIST documents can be used as if in the public domain.
Bizarrely, the RSA and early public key crypto patents were filed
precisely because US government funding was involved, but that's part of
a longer story.
Regards,
--
- Thierry Moreau
CONNOTECH Experts-conseils inc.
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