Copyright of government-produced material?

[AAQ]

Does the U.S. government own the copyright on material that was produced using taxpayer funds?

With the "Terms Of Use" text at http://americasarmy.com/army/legal.php the U.S. Army appears to be claiming the same intellectual property rights that are typically claimed by privately owned U.S. corporations. A click-through license dialog box in the computer video game "America's Army", produced and owned by the Department of the Army, appears to claim all the same stuff for the program code and artwork included in the game as well.

Are things like the federally-produced video game America's Army ineligible for copyright protection or can the Army restrict use as per the "agreements"?

No Preview button on this board... sorry if the post comes out goofy.

 

[divgradcurl]

In general, U.S. Government materials are not covered by copyright.

However, the Government -- or the Army -- in this case probably did not write the game engine from scratch -- they probably licensed the engine from somebody else, so the original owner would still hold a copyright to the code that they licensed to the Army. Any parts of the game that were not specifically produced for the Army would still have their own copyrights attached to them.

From the site:

"The Web Site, its Contents, as well as the organization and layout of the Web Site are the property of DA or its affiliates and contains copyrighted material, trademarks, and other proprietary information protected by the laws of the United States, and international treaties."

This doesn't claim that the Army itself owns the materials -- it says the Department of the Army OR its affiliates. The affiliates are likely various licensors and other contractors who may have their own copyright and other IP rights for stuff they allow the Army to use.

Finally, the Army and the Government can own and enforce (in certain circumstances) trademarks and patents.

So yes, the Army can restrict the use of its game per the agreement.