2006/10/6, Andrew Gray <shimgray(a)gmail.com>om>:
Yes, but there's no requirement for anyone to go
as far as the US and
release *everything* regardless. It wouldn't be impossible to come up
with some kind of a system where copyright was disclaimed on routine
work and most publications, with the government retains the right to
assert copyright at its discretion where it felt it would be
beneficial to do so.
Actually, Dutch law already has such a provision: Dutch government
materials are copyrighted only when copyright is explicitly claimed.
From the English translation of Dutch copyright law
(
http://www.ivir.nl/legislation/nl/copyrightact.html):
The further communication to the public or reproduction of a literary,
scientific or artistic work communicated to the public by or on behalf
of the public authorities shall not be deemed an infringement of the
copyright in such a work, unless the copyright has been explicitly
reserved, either in a general manner by law, decree or ordinance, or
in a specific case by a notice on the work itself or at the
communication to the public. Even if no such reservation has been
made, the author shall retain the exclusive right to have appear in
the form of a collection his works which have been communicated to the
public by or on behalf of the public authorities.
Problem now is how to get those materials...
--
Andre Engels, andreengels(a)gmail.com
ICQ: 6260644 -- Skype: a_engels