[Advocacy Advisors] Copyright for government works

[Mathias Schindler]

Greetings,

I'd like you to take a few moments to have a look at
https://public.resource.org/edicts/ and the discussion about whether
copyright protection should be awarded to government works. The
wording suggested on this page calls for the amendment of the US
copyright code:

"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."

This definition is narrower than the wording regarding *federal*
works, which are not copyrightable at all, regardless of their
"edictive" (no such word exists in my dictionary) nature.

Mathias