Official texts, as defined in Article 2(4) of the
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, are texts of a legislative, administrative and legal nature (e.g. statute laws, administrative regulations and court decisions) and the official translations of such texts.
The Convention indicates that it shall be left to the discretion of each member country of the Berne Convention to determine the protection to be granted to such official texts in that country.
Generally, member countries of the Convention include official texts in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
. However, the governments of the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries claim a
Crown copyright in their works. Many republics of the Commonwealth also copyright their official works, though they have no crown copyright.
Table
See also
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Consumer rights
Consumer protection is the practice of safeguarding buyers of goods and services, and the public, against unfair practices in the marketplace. Consumer protection measures are often established by law. Such laws are intended to prevent busines ...
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Edict of government
Edict of government is a technical term associated with the United States Copyright Office's guidelines and practices that comprehensively includes laws (in a wide sense of that term), which advises that such submissions will neither be accepted no ...
Notes and references
{{DEFAULTSORT:Official Text Copyright
Copyright law
Intellectual property treaties
Copyright law lists