2 ms·

How do you know the logo was prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. federal government? They could’ve hired a design company to make it (albeit not a ve

How do you know the logo was prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. federal government? They could’ve hired a design company to make it (albeit not a very good one, by the looks of it). Anyways, it seems like the NSA feel it is copyrighted: http://gawker.com/the-nsa-sent-a-takedown-notice-over-my-custom-prism-log-512085836 http://gawker.com/the-nsa-sent-a-takedown-notice-over-my-cus...

tree6014 13y ago
The NSA stole the prism image for the logo from a professional photographer without permission. In theory, that photographer could have had the products pulled due to the photo copyright.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  No, he couldn’t have, he offers the image for free: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5934943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5934943
daeken 13y ago
> How do you know the logo was prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. federal government? They could’ve hired a design company to make it (albeit not a very good one, by the looks of it). Had they done so, it'd presumably be a work for hire and still not be copyrightable, since the government would own it.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  That is false. “Unlike works of the U.S. Government, works produced by contractors under government contracts (or submitted in anticipation of such contracts) are protected and restricted under U.S. copyright law.” Also important: even if a federal employee made it, it may not be protected by copyright in the US but it can still be copyrighted in all other countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the...
  - genwin 13y ago
    Wonderful. So the US gov't can issue a take-down request for any of its works on the interwebs.
  - adandy 13y ago
    There is an alternate clause that can be placed in a FAR that when used may give copyright to the contractor.
genwin 13y ago
Interesting. I suspect what really happened is that the Zazzle owners feared being put on the no-fly list, or worse.

tree6014 13y ago

The NSA stole the prism image for the logo from a professional photographer without permission. In theory, that photographer could have had the products pulled due to the photo copyright.

Samuel_Michon 13y ago
No, he couldn’t have, he offers the image for free: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5934943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5934943

daeken 13y ago

> How do you know the logo was prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. federal government? They could’ve hired a design company to make it (albeit not a very good one, by the looks of it). Had they done so, it'd presumably be a work for hire and still not be copyrightable, since the government would own it.

Samuel_Michon 13y ago
That is false. “Unlike works of the U.S. Government, works produced by contractors under government contracts (or submitted in anticipation of such contracts) are protected and restricted under U.S. copyright law.” Also important: even if a federal employee made it, it may not be protected by copyright in the US but it can still be copyrighted in all other countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the_U.S._government http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_the...
- genwin 13y ago
  Wonderful. So the US gov't can issue a take-down request for any of its works on the interwebs.
- adandy 13y ago
  There is an alternate clause that can be placed in a FAR that when used may give copyright to the contractor.

genwin 13y ago

Interesting. I suspect what really happened is that the Zazzle owners feared being put on the no-fly list, or worse.