2009-05-13 03:35:27 - EFF.org Updates : The photos by official White House photographer Pete Souza are nowavailable to the public on the White House Flickr stream under a newarrangement: in place of the Creative Commons Attribution license usedpreviously, the photos are now identified as "United States GovernmentWorks," along with a link to the US Copyright Office page quotingTitle 17 of the United States Code:§ 105 Subject matter of copyright: United States Government worksCopyright protection under this title is not available for anywork of the United States Government, but the United StatesGovernment is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrightstransferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwiseEFF and others had earlier pointed out that the Attribution license —while useful for remixers and fair users — was still a license and notnecessary or appropriate for federal government works Federalgovernment works are not copyrightable, and as such should be treatedas works in the public domain: free to use without restrictionIt's great to see that Flickr, which has introduced thousands ofpeople to Creative Commons and the usefulness of alternative licensingoptions, is once again leading the pack By removing licensingrestrictions for the White House photos they are allowing the publicfree access to the works they pay for with their tax dollars — animportant principal that Flickr deserves credit for upholding
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