kelvSYC wrote:
Sorry if I'm in the wrong list in this matter, but
I'm just too lazy
to subscribe to the Wikisource list just for the sake of one
message. Anyways, I want to add the Handbook of Mathematical
Functions (or a wikified version therein) by Abramowitz and Stegun in
Wikisource, but I am not too sure whether legal issues would preclude
its inclusion.
According to [[w:Abramowitz and Stegun]], it is not protected by
copyright, as it is a product of American government employees acting
in official capacity, but it has been commercially reproduced. Free
copies of the handbook are available online, according to its
external links version.
Advice on the matter is greatly appreciated.
It's clearly in the public domain; there is no mention of copyright at
the beginning of the book. In that time a notice was a precondition to
being copyright. The fact that it has been commercially reproduced does
not take it out of the public domain. If you are taking the material
from a commercial reproduction, only material (such as an introduction)
that they have added could be protected.
Ec