open source copyright language

[me-5yx05kfkO/aqeI1yJSURBw at public.gmane.org (Matthew Gillen)]

On 08/07/2009 01:22 PM, Matthew Gillen wrote:
> On 08/07/2009 12:03 PM, Stephen Adler wrote:
>> Nope. The government itself cannot copyright anything, but the
>> contracting firm can. This work is done under a research directive and
>> the source code should be available to the public.
>
> You asked about copyright, and correctly point out that the gov't can't
> copyright anything.
> ...

There's one more technicality: the gov't can't copyright anything, but it can
receive and hold copyrights that are transferred to it (and the contract could
specify that you must transfer copyright):
http://www.cendi.gov/publications/04-8copyright.html#312

Matt