R Leonard
Staff Sergeant
Just as a general guideline, documents and photos that are produced by a US government employee (including military and naval personnel) as a course of their assigned duties, and that are released by the government, are in the public domain and may be reproduced, copied, and distributed without restriction.
If you purchased something such as Maurer Maurer (that's the guy's name, its not two guys with the same last name) from the GPO, then it is yours to do with as you will.
If you are some publisher who thinks he can make a buck, you can buy from the GPO, turn around, reprint, and sell on the open market at some jacked up price. The US government won't do anything about it. And sure, the publisher can slap a copyright on his book, but the only thing he's copyrighting is his layout and formating; the contents, or as they say, the intellectual content, is still public domain.
This happens more often than one might expect. Note the aircraft pilot manuals available on the open market as reprints of the originals. I sometimes wonder about making a reprint of my USAAF translated Ar 234 pilot manuals, but then I think about all the publishing hassles and say " . . . naaaa."
My father in law directed the team that wrote "Armored Combat In Vietnam" under direction of General Starry, it was published by the Army as a lessons learned manual . . . I have a couple . . . I also have the commercially printed hardback. Nobody but the publisher of the hardback got a penny out of the deal, and all the publisher did was reprint a government document.
I can quote the necessary passages from US cpoyright law, if you'd like. So, if the original document comes from the US Government or one of the US Services, and it has been released, have at 'em!
Rich
If you purchased something such as Maurer Maurer (that's the guy's name, its not two guys with the same last name) from the GPO, then it is yours to do with as you will.
If you are some publisher who thinks he can make a buck, you can buy from the GPO, turn around, reprint, and sell on the open market at some jacked up price. The US government won't do anything about it. And sure, the publisher can slap a copyright on his book, but the only thing he's copyrighting is his layout and formating; the contents, or as they say, the intellectual content, is still public domain.
This happens more often than one might expect. Note the aircraft pilot manuals available on the open market as reprints of the originals. I sometimes wonder about making a reprint of my USAAF translated Ar 234 pilot manuals, but then I think about all the publishing hassles and say " . . . naaaa."
My father in law directed the team that wrote "Armored Combat In Vietnam" under direction of General Starry, it was published by the Army as a lessons learned manual . . . I have a couple . . . I also have the commercially printed hardback. Nobody but the publisher of the hardback got a penny out of the deal, and all the publisher did was reprint a government document.
I can quote the necessary passages from US cpoyright law, if you'd like. So, if the original document comes from the US Government or one of the US Services, and it has been released, have at 'em!
Rich
