the registration specialist may communicate with the applicant and may refuse registration, even if the claimant is a nongovernmental entity.
There are several exceptions to these rules:
- Although works prepared by officers or employees of the U.S. government within the scope of their employment are not copyrightable, the federal government may receive and hold “copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.” 17 U.S.C. § 105. For example, a U.S. government agency may register a website created by a government contractor, provided that the contractor did not create the website for the agency as a work made for hire and provided that the contractor transferred the copyright in that work to that agency.
- Works prepared by officers or employees of the U.S. Postal Service, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Public Broadcasting Services, or National Public Radio are not considered works of the U.S. government. See H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, at 59 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5672.
- Works prepared by officers or employees of the Smithsonian Institution are not considered works of the U.S. government if the author-employee was paid from the Smithsonian trust fund.
- The U.S. Secretary of Commerce may secure copyright for a limited term not to exceed five years in any standard reference data prepared or disseminated by the National Technical Information Service pursuant to 15 U.S.C. Chapter 23. See H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, at 59–60 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5673.
- A work prepared by an officer or employee of the U.S. government may be registered if the work was prepared at that person’s own volition and outside his or her official duties, even if the subject matter focuses on the author’s work for the government. See H.R. Rep. No. 94-1476, at 58 (1976), reprinted in 1976 U.S.C.C.A.N. at 5671.
313.6(C)(2) Government Edicts
As a matter of longstanding public policy, the U.S. Copyright Office will not register a government edict that has been issued by any state, local, or territorial government, including legislative enactments, judicial decisions, administrative rulings, public ordinances, or similar types of official legal materials. Likewise, the Office will not register a government edict issued by any foreign government or any translation prepared by a government employee acting within the course of his or her official duties. See Banks v. Manchester, 128 U.S. 244, 253 (1888) (“there has always been a judicial consensus, from the time of the decision in the case of Wheaton v. Peters, 8 Pet. 591, that no copyright could under the statutes passed by Congress, be secured in the products of the labor done by judicial officers in the discharge of their judicial duties”); Howell v. Miller, 91 F. 129, 137 (6th Cir. 1898) (Harlan, J.) (“no one can obtain the exclusive right to publish the laws of a state in a book prepared by him”).
