sarahmae writes “Via BoingBoing: A summer intern with the Federation of American Scientists created the Really Ready website in an attempt to improve upon the Department of Homeland Security’s Ready.gov. Now Homeland Security is trying to shut down the site claiming intellectual property infringement.
Read more and see the letter from DHS here. The original BoingBoing post about the launch of the site is here.”
no case
I know a little about Title 17 and intellectual property. Far less, I’m sure, than some here so please check my math.
DHS’s claim of infringement doesn’t meet the standards usually applied in these cases. There is no profit motive, there is little (though not 0) chance someone will confuse the two, there is no malice, etc.
Further, doesn’t the public technically own the copyright on federal government graphics?
Re:no case 🙂
There are certin gov’t images that are protected. I believe the presidential seal is one of them — I do not know about check-marks in boxes though.
some, yes
Right, things like the Presidential Seal, anything having to do with the printing of money, passports, etc. are protected but more for security reasons and less for intellectual property reasons.
I surprised they tried to make their argument on IP instead of national security, upon which most courts will just aquiesce to the gov’t.
Re:some, yes
The “national security” bit has been getting too threadbare; the most recent court ruling by Judge Digg about warrantless wiretapping not being covered by “national security” claims has pretty much torn a gaping hole in that excuse.
Government documents and utterances by public officials are public domain. The seals of government departments are probably protected under Registration so as to avoid they’re being used fraudulently or so they are not “watered down” by commercial use.