This guide intends to provide and refer users to accurate information. However, information received from the NWC Library or the NWC Copyright Librarian is neither legal advice/opinion nor legal counsel to the college or any members of the NWC community. Please contact the NWC Office of General Counsel or NWC Staff Judge Advocate's Office for NWC-related legal advice and interpretation of the law, or personal counsel for personal legal advice. U.S. Copyright Law is subject to change.
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The Copyright Act provides that federal governmental materials are not protected by copyright laws. In other words, such works, by definition, are part of the public domain. The public domain status of U.S. Government works applies only in the United States.
Specifically, 17 U.S.C. § 105 states: "Copyright protection...is not available for any work of the United States Government..."
The exception adopted in 2019, however, assigns copyright ownership to literary works produced by civilian faculty in the course of employment at NWC for publications by a scholarly press or journal. Covered institutions also include other Professional Military Education (PME) institutions. Before signing a publishing contract, please speak with personal counsel and/or NWC Staff Judge Advocate's Office for support.
While this seems fairly simple, it can be a bit more difficult to apply in practice. For instance, a work of a federal contractor or grantee is not a "work of the U.S. Government," so it may be protected by copyright and depends on the contractor's hiring agreement. Additionally, even if copyright laws do not operate to protect a U.S. Governmental work, other protections (such as trademark) may apply.
It is also important to determine that within a federal government work there are no third party works that are covered by copyright (e.g., images, maps, data representations). Inclusion of a work protected by copyright within a government work does not change the copyright status of the privately created work. Although 17 U.S.C. § 403 states that a federal government work should include "a statement identifying, either affirmatively or negatively, those portions of the copies or phonorecords embodying any work or works protected under" 17 U.S.C., this is not always the case. To clarify any rights questions, it is a good best practice to contact the publishing agency or sponsoring office.
Note:
Non-copyright restrictions may apply to works of the U.S. Government that include certain indicators of federal agencies or other government offices or components. A number of federal statutes specifically address this issue and prohibit certain unauthorized uses of government or agency names, acronyms, logos, insignias, seats, etc. (e.g., to create a misleading impression of affiliation or endorsement by a federal agency or government component).
The copyright of materials produced by state governments varies by state law. There is no simple provision in the Copyright Act dealing with state government materials.
Third-party copyrighted works incorporated within a state government work retain their own copyright.
For more information, please review the following resource:
This state-by-state map is maintained by the Office of Scholarly Communication at Harvard University. It helps users understand the copyright of each state's materials.