[LINK] wikileaks back

[Jan Whitaker]

At 10:55 AM 4/12/2010, Kim Holburn wrote:
>As for Amazon, it certainly was interesting.  They haven't said 
>exactly what it was that wikileaks had done.  They hosted the 
>collateral murder leaks on their cloud without issues.
>
>http://www.fastcompany.com/1707262/why-lieberman-had-nothing-to-do-with-amazon-dropping-wikileaks

Someone mentioned that Amazon did it on copyright grounds. AFAIK, 
that doesn't hold water either. I don't think the US Govt retains 
copyright the way Australia does for 'the crown'. Since government 
generated stuff is paid by tax payers, tax payers own it. US govt 
info is generally free, particularly if electronic and no cost for printing.

A work of the United States government, as defined by 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_copyright_law>United 
States copyright law, is "a work prepared by an officer or employee 
of the 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_government_of_the_United_States>U.S. 
government as part of that person's official 
duties."<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government#cite_note-0>[1] 
The term only applies to the work of the federal government, 
including the governments of "non-organized territorial areas" under 
the jurisdiction of the U.S 
Government,<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government#cite_note-206.02e-1>[2] 
but not state or local governments. In general, under section 105 of 
the Copyright 
Act,<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government#cite_note-17usc105-2>[3] 
such works are not entitled to domestic copyright protection under 
U.S. law, sometimes referred to as "noncopyright." The act only 
speaks about domestic copyright. The USA can still hold the copyright 
of those works in other 
countries.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government#cite_note-3>[4] 


Amazon is in the US, so except for their UK offices, would have no 
copyright considerations in the US itself.

There are Exemptions:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government#Exemptions
These are mainly US owned companies, like the Postal Service.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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