In countries other than the US, does the national government retain copyright of works created by its employees?

Asked by 6rant6 (13710

) October 21st, 2011

Does anyone know the status of government created works in other countries?

I’m particularly interested to find if there are non-English documents that could be translated and reproduced in the US without infringing copyrights.In the US, documents produced as part of work by federal employees are precluded from being copyrighted by the government.

Really, I’m not looking for help on US law, so spare me any nuances I might have missed.

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4 Answers

I think (can’t be sure) that in the UK the government retains copyright and IP rights over the products of employees work on government business.

dk6hgsds9axe3 (264

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Check these out for Canada and France

njnyjobs (7592

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In the UK the Crown retain the rights….

“The rights in a contribution prepared by an employee of a UK government department, agency or other Crown body as part of his/her official duties, or which is an official government publication, belong to the Crown. Authors must ensure they comply with departmental regulations and submit the appropriate authorisation to publish.

flutherother (34927

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In addition, in the UK, if a company needs to keep a copy of your birth or marriage certificate for example on file as part of it’s identity checking procedures then they can only keep a black and white copy. Colour copies are breaking Crown Copyright.

RareDenver (13173

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