On 6/3/06, Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote:
I think there is no easy answer. It would be best to contact the exact office or institution which commissioned them and ask for a letter clarifying the copyright status.
It is possible that the government purchased both the copyright and the physical object, but also possible that the government merely purchased the physical object.
And in either scenario it's possible that the work is not in the public domain. As is stated in 17 U.S.C. ยง 105, "the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise."