Reimagining Copyright in Government Works

Abstract

Governments in India have over the years produced and continue to produce a large quantity of works. These works are created with public funds and in most cases with the intent of public education. However, the government also actively asserts copyright in these works, which can and have acted as a barrier to the very goal they were created. Additionally, charging for access to these works is a double-tax on the citizens who had already paid for the creation of these works. Through this paper I seek to propose a model for licensing copyrighted government works under Creative Commons licenses. Through this model, these works can be made available to the public through the Internet, while allowing re-use for commercial and non-commercial purposes.

Keywords: government works, copyright in government works, creative commons license, public domain, India