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[edit] Works ineligible for copyright protection

This image depicts a unit of currency issued by the United States of America. If this is an image of paper currency or a coin not listed here, it is solely a work of the United States Government, is ineligible for copyright, and is therefore in the public domain.

In short: U.S. Federal Government works, or no creative content

See also: Copyright on emblems.

[edit] U.S. government works

For the U.S., federal government works are not eligible for copyright protection (17 USC 105). It is not clear whether this applies world-wide, see the CENDI Copyright FAQ list, 3.1.7 and a discussion on that at the LibraryLaw Blog.

In practice, this means that much material on *.gov and *.mil, as well as material on some *.us web sites (such as the sites of the U.S. Forest Service), are in the public domain. Please note that not all such material is in the public domain, though:

• U.S. governmental web sites may use copyrighted works, too; either by having licensed them or under a "fair use" provision. In general, such copyrighted works on web sites of the U.S. federal government and its agencies are indicated by appropriate bylines. An example are "visitor image galleries" on U.S. National Park Service websites: unless these have some indication that the photographs are placed in the public domain by publishing them on that NPS web site, these images are copyrighted by their photographers, who are visitors of national parks, not employees of the NPS.
• Some U.S. state and local governments also have web sites in the *.gov domain. State and local governments usually do retain a copyright on their works. 17 USC §105 only places federal documents in the public domain.<ref name="state_pubs">Publications of U.S. state, district, county, or municipal agencies are eligible to coypright. Only works of federal agencies are exempt from copyright; see Radcliffe & Brinson: Copyright Law, or the CENDI Copyright FAQ list, 3.1.3.</ref>
• Works produced under a commission from the U.S. government by a contractor are most likely copyrighted. This typically includes any documents from research labs. The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for instance, is operated by a contractor for the U.S. Department of Energy, but that does not mean the works it produces are "works of the federal government". ORNL works are copyrighted, and the U.S. government is granted a non-exclusive license to use, publish, and allow republication of such works. The precise terms vary from one lab to the next, but in general, commercial re-use of their works is prohibited.<ref name="contractors">CENDI Copyright FAQ list, section 4.0, and 17 USC 105.</ref> This also applies to works authored by independent contractors or freelance writers or artists, even when their works are commissioned by some U.S. government agency.<ref name="Gorman_52ff">Gorman, R. A.: Copyright Law, 2nd ed., U.S. Federal Judicial Center, June 19, 2006; chapter 2: The Subject Matter of Copyright, section "Government works", pp. 52ff. URL last accessed 2008-08-13.</ref>
• Even the U.S. federal government may hold copyrights, if the original copyright holder assigns or transfers the copyright to the U.S. government. A notable example of this is the obverse of the Sacagawea dollar, in which its designer Glenna Goodacre claimed copyright before she transferred the design and its copyright to the United States Mint.<ref name="sacagawea"> See "Intellectual Property Rights" in the U.S. Mint website's privacy policy [1]. </ref> Of course, when a U.S. governmental agency holds such a transferred copyright, it is free to declare the work to be in the public domain (or not).<ref name="Gorman_52ff"/>

Under U.S. law, laws themselves and legal rulings also form a special class. All current or formerly binding laws, codes, and regulations produced by government at any level, including other countries' governments, and the court opinions of any court case are in the public domain. [2] This applies even to the laws enacted in states and municipalities that ordinarily claim copyright over their work. The US Copyright Office has interpreted this as applying to all "edicts of government" both domestic and foreign.<ref name="compendium206_01">The Compendium of Copyright Office Practices (Compendium II) section 206.01 states, "Edicts of government, such as judicial opinions, administrative rulings, legislative enactments, public ordinances, and similar official legal documents are not copyrightable for reasons of public policy. This applies to such works whether they are Federal, State, or local as well as to those of foreign governments." and 206.03 clarifies "Works (other than edicts of government) prepared by officers or employees of any government (except the U.S. Government) including State, local, or foreign governments, are subject to registration if they are otherwise copyrightable."</ref>

Note that other countries' governments may hold copyrights; in fact, most do so and their works are thus copyright protected. At the same time, many countries declare their edicts, as well as those of other countries, such as laws and court decisions, to be exempt from copyright. Such exemptions are typically narrowly defined and cannot be construed to mean "any publication by a government office".

The United States Copyright Office, in section 206.02(b), 206.02(c), and 206.02(d) of the Compendium II: Copyright Office Practices, has stated its position that works of the U.S. Postal Service, of the government of the District of Columbia, or of the government of Puerto Rico are not "works of the U.S. government" and thus are subject to copyright.<ref>See 206.02(b), 206.02(c), and 206.02(d) of the Compendium of Copyright Office Practices of the U.S. Copyright Office</ref> Works of the United States Post Office Department prior to the formation of the U.S. Postal Service are still considered government works and are in the public domain.Template:Fact Works of the United Nations or its agencies or of the OAS are subject to copyright. <ref name="us_un">See section 206.03 of the Compendium of Copyright Office Practices of the U.S. Copyright Office, and also 17 USC 104(b)(5).</ref> On the UN, see Works of the United Nations for some important exceptions: some UN documents are in the public domain.

In the U.S., any work published before January 1, 1923 anywhere in the world[1] is in the public domain. Other countries are not bound to that 1923 date, though. Complications arise when special cases are considered, such as trying to determine whether a work published later might be in the public domain in the U.S., or when dealing with unpublished works. When a work has not been published in the U.S. but in some other country, that other country's copyright laws also must be taken into account. Re-users of Wikipedia content also might find the explanations here useful.