"Hal Rosser" wrote in message
. ..

"John Smith" wrote in message
...
To all:

It is my understanding that all gov't materials, since paid for by
taxpayers, are non-copyright.
Also, any material before 1923 would have expired copyrights and,
undoubtably, a significant amount of material will have been published
"public domain";

So, you're saying that anyone could republish a book like "Moby Dick"
and sell it as their own since it was published before 1923 ?
I'm no lawyer, but I believe copyright live on. Patents expire.
If you're just wanting to build an antenna that someone else thought of
first
then you just 'do it' - just be careful about patent infringements if you
try to sell those antennas.



There are several websites addressing copyright. Here in the US, copyrights
before 1923 are indeed expired. Some copyrights after this date are also
expired depending on renewal status at the times of various copyright law
changes but that gets a little complicated. No they cannot publish the
material as their own as that is plagiarism but they can publish it without
permission of the original copyright holder and do not have to pay anyone
for the right to print it. When a publishing house prints a new edition of
"Moby Dick", all the money goes to the publishing house. None goes to the
author's estate or heirs.