[Foundation-l] NYT: Who owns the law? (Noam Cohen)

[Andre Engels]

On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 12:33 PM, Michael Bimmler <mbimmler at gmail.com> wrote:
>> From what I recall the law is protected by copyright everywhere other
>> than the US and North Korea (North Korea is kinda unclear it depends
>> on what exactly is meant by government pronouncements).
>>
>
> Add Switzerland to these two...(are there really no others?). In
> Switzerland "laws, decrees, international treaties, means of currency,
> decisions, protocols and reports by public authorities, patents and
> published patent applications" are all explicitly exempt from
> copyright.

The Netherlands as well. I actually think this holds for many countries.

Dutch Copyright law, article 11:
"Er bestaat geen auteursrecht op wetten, besluiten en verordeningen,
door de openbare macht uitgevaardigd, noch op rechterlijke uitspraken
en administratieve beslissingen."

Translated:
"There is no copyright on laws, decisions and ordinances, promulgated
by public authorities, nor on judicial sentences and administrative
decisions."



-- 
André Engels, andreengels at gmail.com