Hello Researchit-ga,
Fascinating question, and as I researched the issue, it became clear
that your question can be answered in a more definitive fashion than I
first thought. I do want to reiterate my earlier comment, however,
that I am not a lawyer, nor an expert on copyright issues. I would
strongly advise consulting a legal professional before basing any
decisions on the information I am providing here.
If any of the information below is not clear, please post a Request
for Clarification, and I'll be glad to elaborate.
----------
The U.S. Copyright Office is housed in the Library of Congress and has
an extrememly helpful website at:
http://www.loc.gov/copyright/
The actual law governing copyright (Copyright Law of the United States
of America)can be found here:
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#105
and includes the following brief, but critical, section:
§ 105. Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works
Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of
the United States Government, but the United States Government is not
precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by
assignment, bequest, or otherwise.
----------
The site also includes a page of "Copyright Basics" at:
http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.html#wnp
which includes two very relevant sections which I've extracted below:
WHAT IS NOT PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT?
Several categories of material are generally not eligible for federal
copyright protection. These include among others:
Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form of expression (for
example, choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded,
or improvisational speeches or performances that have not been written
or recorded)
Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or
designs; mere variations of typographic ornamentation, lettering, or
coloring; mere listings of ingredients or contents
Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles,
discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description,
explanation, or illustration
Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and
containing no original authorship (for example: standard calendars,
height and weight charts, tape measures and rulers, and lists or
tables taken from public documents or other common sources)
----------
It is the last paragraph, of course, that is key to your question:
works that are *entirely* of information that is common property are
not protected by copyright. "Common property" information includes
information taken from public sources (see below), such as the IRS
data you asked about.
----------
The same site includes another highly relevant section:
Publications Incorporating U. S. Government Works
Works by the U. S. Government are not eligible for U. S. copyright
protection.
For works published on and after March 1, 1989, the previous notice
requirement for works consisting primarily of one or more U. S.
Government works has been eliminated. However, use of a notice on such
a work will defeat a claim of innocent infringement as previously
described provided the notice also includes a statement that
identifies either those portions of the work in which copyright is
claimed or those portions that constitute U. S. Government material.
Example: 2002 Jane Brown. Copyright claimed in Chapters 7-10,
exclusive of U. S. Government maps
----------
The gist of this legalese-sounding statement is that (1) government
information is not subject to copyright and (2) works that make use of
government information *can* have a copyright notice but the document
should make clear that the government portion of the publication is
excluded from the claim.
----------
So, as I read this, the bottom line is: once-public-always-public.
The information you asked about should be copyright-free.
You did not provide a detailed description about the form of the IRS
information -- was it printed data or electronic data, for instance.
However, you did state that it is unchanged from its original form as
provided by the IRS. In this case, it remains in the public domain.
If it was "changed" in the sense that someone published a report that
contained the IRS information, then the report itself is subject to
copyright protection, but the segments of the report that are the
original IRS data would be excluded from copyright protection (as in
the Jane Doe example, above).
----------
As I said earlier, I hope this answers your question clearly and
fully, but if you need any additional information, please do not
hesitate to post a Request for Clarification and I'll be happy to
assist you further. |
Clarification of Answer by
pafalafa-ga
on
20 Mar 2003 08:18 PST
Hello again, and thanks for the added information...it's a huge help.
I have two pieces of information for you:
1. IRS is not willing to put any statements about copyright in
writing. When you think about it, why would they? IRS is not the
government's copyright agency, after all, and they don't necessarily
have legal expertise in this area. No one I spoke with saw a way to
move forward on the copyright issue. However....
2. Most of the IRS publicly available information on nonprofits is
available on the internet in downloadable, machine-readable files. It
may very well be the case that the exact information you are being
offered is already posted on the IRS site, and is thus clearly in the
public domain.
I would urge you to familiarize yourself with the materials at the IRS
site, and compare them to what is being offered to you.
----------
The IRS site on data on non-profits is here:
http://www.irs.gov/taxstats/article/0,,id=97186,00.html
Towards the top of the page is the following info on "Publication 78":
Cumulative List of Organizations, Publication 78
The 'Cumulative List of Organizations', an Electronic Version of
Publication 78. This Publication Lists the Names of Organizations
Eligible to Receive Tax Deductible Contributions, as Well as Their
Deductibility Limitations. EXE File Includes ASCII Text. Large File -
11 Megabytes. October 2002.
The Documentation Guide for the 'Cumulative List of Organizations'.
ASCII Text. November 2002.
[note from pafalafa-ga -- Pub. 78 is information extracted from the
BMF on the location and status of non-profit organizations -- in other
words, it is a subset of the BMF. My guess is that this is *not* the
information you are after, but I wanted you to be aware of it, just
the same].
----------
Further down the page is the following header:
Exempt Organizations Master Listing
These are the direct links to the *full BMF data files* for non-profit
organizations. You'll see a number of links here for data dictionary
documentation as well as for the actual BMF non-profit files
themselves. These can be downloaded by individual states, areas or
regions. Downloading all four regions gets you the entire country!
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The link that reads: "The Instruction Booklet: Record Layout,
Descriptions, and All Codes for the Exempt Organization Master Listing
in Plain Text . ASCII Text. February 2003" takes you here:
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/eobk03.txt
to a document that begins (and note that I can quote it ad lib, since
it's *not copyrighted*):
Feb. 13 2003
EXEMPT ORGANIZATION INFORMATION AVAILABLE THROUGH THE STATISTICS OF
INCOME (SOI)
"Tax Stats" WEB SITE
INTRODUCTION
This document provides information to organizations and individuals
who desire information on exempt organizations from the Internal
Revenue Service's Business Master File (BMF) through the SOI "Tax
Stats" Web Site. If you have any questions about the tax exempt
organizations, the data fields, or the contents of the file, please
contact Betty Crawford, Office of Business Systems Planning, T:BSP, at
(202) 283-9934. For technical questions relating to the Web Site and
the downloading and reading of these files, please contact Jim Willis,
Systems Administrator, Statistics of Income Division, N:ADC:R:S:SS:O,
at (202) 874-0277 or E-mail at James.N.Willis@irs.gov.
[another note from me: Betty Crawford is actually not at her desk
these days, but her voice mail refers callers to Ron Williams at the
IRS, 202-283-9943. Ron was extremely helpful -- a sterling civil
servant -- so feel free to call him with any questions you may have]
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I hope this provides you with everything you need, but if not, don't
hesitate to hit the clarification button once more so we can continue
out conversation. I'm happy to help out.
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