Copyright Status Of Work By The Florida Government
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Under Florida's Constitution and its statutes, the state and its agents are not permitted to claim
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
on its public records unless the legislature specifically permits it.Florida Statutes §119.011(12)
/ref>Florida Constitution Article I, §24(a)
/ref>
/ref>Archived
at
Wayback Machine The Wayback Machine is a digital archive of the World Wide Web founded by the Internet Archive, a nonprofit based in San Francisco, California. Created in 1996 and launched to the public in 2001, it allows the user to go "back in time" and see ...
This includes a work made or received pursuant to law or ordinance or in connection with the transaction of official business by any state, regional, county, district, municipal, or other unit of government and their associated committees and divisions created or established by the laws of the
Government of Florida The government of Florida is established and operated according to the Constitution of Florida and is composed of three separation of powers, branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the governor of Florida and the other electe ...
. Text, communications, and images produced by the government of Florida and any county, region, district, authority, agency, or municipal officer, department, division, board, committee, bureau, commission, or other separate unit of government created or established by law are consequently in the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
according to court interpretation in ''
Microdecisions, Inc. v. Skinner ''Microdecisions, Inc. v. Skinner'', (Fla. 2d Dist. App. 2004), was a case before the Florida Second District Court of Appeal concerning whether Abe Skinner, the Collier County Property Appraiser could require prospective commercial users of the ...
''. The bar on copyright extends to any "public record made or received in connection with the official business of any public body, officer, or employee of the state, or persons acting on their behalf, except with respect to ''records exempted'' pecifically by statute or specifically made exempt orconfidential by the Constitution. tspecifically includes the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government and each agency or department created thereunder; counties, municipalities, and districts; and each constitutional officer, board, and commission, or entity created pursuant to law or he FloridaConstitution." There are various categories of works for which the legislature has specifically permitted copyright to be claimed, mostly for a few applications or development processes wherein the state derives income and while competing with private industries in the commercial realm, such as allowing the Department of the Lottery, the Department of Citrus, and some university research departments to secure copyrights for certain works that are expressly defined and narrowly limited.Florida Statutes §1004.23 The list of valid exemptions is culled regularly via a sunset policy to exclude items put on the list by error or via legislation passed within a recent session that does not conform to the laws. The state is attempting to streamline its exemptions and the current status of works claiming exemption must be verified as conforming to the laws before being presumed to be copyright since copyright may be claimed in error for things that remain a public record nonetheless.


See also

* Commons:Copyright tags *
Copyright status of works by the federal government of the United States A work of the United States government, is defined by the United States copyright law, as "a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties." "A 'work of the United States Governmen ...
*
Copyright status of works by subnational governments of the United States The copyright status of works produced by the governments of states, territories, and municipalities in the United States varies. Copyright law is federal in the United States. Federal law expressly denies U.S. copyright protection to two types ...
* ''
Microdecisions, Inc. v. Skinner ''Microdecisions, Inc. v. Skinner'', (Fla. 2d Dist. App. 2004), was a case before the Florida Second District Court of Appeal concerning whether Abe Skinner, the Collier County Property Appraiser could require prospective commercial users of the ...
'', 889 S.2d 871 (Fla. 2d Dist. App. 2004) * ''
County of Santa Clara v. California First Amendment Coalition ''County of Santa Clara v. California First Amendment Coalition'', 170 Cal. App. 4th 1301 (2009), was a case before the California Courts of Appeal dealing with the ability of a local California agency to limit the disclosure of, or require licen ...
''


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Copyright Status Of Work By The Florida Government United States copyright law Florida law Public domain