4 ms·
where it gets really goofy is the US gov work doesn't have copyright itself, so wouldn't any work done by them be PD, regardless of the underlying license?
by xxpor 4y ago
where it gets really goofy is the US gov work doesn't have copyright itself, so wouldn't any work done by them be PD, regardless of the underlying license?
- not2b 4y agoIf they extend an existing GPL work, the work as a whole is GPL, even if their added code is PD.
- kmeisthax 4y agoMy gut feeling is no, because the work is still a derivative work of a privately-owned copyrighted work, and private copyright does not dissolve when the government touches it. If you could separate the governments' code from the GPL code, then it would be automatically public domain, but the combination is still GPL. However I'm not aware of any case law proving this.