[PSUBS-MAILIST] Busby Book Copyright

[John Brownlee <jonnie@cobweb.scarymonsters.net>]

	Just a thought, but I think a short letter to the USN office in
question about whether or not the rights are held privately or in the
public domain would save everyone a lot of typing. 
	Phil is right, the real question is whether or not this particular
work commissioned by the Federal Government is in the public domain or
not. My experience in working at NASA/NSF was that every work (an image,
algorithm or data-product) I produced under that commission was indeed
public domain and had to, as a clause in my agreement to perform the work
clearly stated, made freely available to anyone who asked within reason.
	This does not mean that if I made a derivative work (like a
picture book on Mars) that could not be my intellectual property, but the
pictures we took as government assigns working for a federal agency were
not properties I (or anyone on the lander team) could copyright.  It's a
common condition in books commissioned by or written for a government
agency. In fact, most agreements to produce such works have monies
attached to them to defray the cost of doing exactly this. On the Mars
lander we had an itemization for the web sites we used to get the images
to the general public and press agencies.
	The question is not whether or not patents and copyrights are
wrong (though some are issued badly or for poor reasons) but whether or
not this work is public domain or not. A quick call or visit to a
University librarian should clear up the issue. If the book is in the
public domain, in it's entirety, than there s nothing wrong with
whole-scale copying. If it's not, then fair-use would be the metric of
what can be copied or re-distributed. Either way it is right and
respectful to check first.

							John

John Brownlee
Chief Systems Administrator
Scary Monsters Network
jonnie at scarymonsters dot net