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Comment on How the Government Shutdown Warps Time Itself

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The license stuff seems weird without further context: even if they can't copy that file, what's the hold up to just "encode" the information from the bulletin on their own and putting it into their file?

Wouldn't that make it a derivative work, legally speaking?

Wouldn't that make it a derivative work, legally speaking?

IANAL, but:

I think not, facts are not under copyright. If you only copy facts (and avoid copying style), then you are not creating derivative work.

Furthermore, works created by federal employees in the course of their duties are not eligible for copyright in the U.S. [0] The U.S. does not have an equivalent of crown copyright. The U.S. government can only own copyrights transferred to them by private individuals or organizations, or state and local governments which may or may not hold copyrights on their works.

[0]: https://www.usa.gov/government-works

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