Editing Encyclopedia:Copyrights (section)

===Works by the United States Federal Government===
{{further|Wikipedia:Public domain#U.S. government works|selfref=yes}}

Works produced by civilian and military employees of the [[United States]] federal government in the scope of their employment are public domain by statute in the United States (though they may be protected by copyright outside the U.S.). It is not enough that the employee was working at the time; he/she must have made the work as part of his/her duties (e.g. a soldier who takes a photograph with his/her personal camera while on patrol in Iraq owns the copyright to the photo, but it may find its way onto a unit webpage or otherwise be licensed to the government).  

However, not every work republished by the U.S. government falls into this category. The U.S. government can own copyrights that are assigned to it by others–for example, works created by contractors.
{{quotation|'''United States Code; ''Title 17; Chapter 1; § 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.[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/105 US Code]}}

Moreover, images and other media found on .mil and .gov websites may be using commercial [[stock photography]] owned by others. It may be useful to check the privacy and security notice of the website, but only with an email to the webmaster can you be confident that an image is in the public domain.

Note that while the United States government does not claim copyright protection on its own works, governments outside the U.S. often do claim copyright over works produced by their employees. (For example, several Commonwealth realms utilize [[Crown copyright]].)