Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Puerto Rico/Archives/2009/October

copyright

Puerto Rico is missing from List of countries' copyright length. Does anyone know the laws involved? Also, what is the copyright status of works of the government - are bills and acts placed into the public domain? John Vandenberg^(chat) 02:22, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

I am not sure but assume United States copyright law applies. Puerto Rico is part of the U.S. doncram (talk) 06:56, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

Thank you; I should have guessed it, but I wasnt not sure how the two jurisdictions work together. I'll do more reading, but I think your answer adequately covers my first question.

In regards to works of the government, the problem is that US federal law only applies to U.S. federal institutions, which are all in the public domain. Works of the U.S. state organs are not automatically placed into the public domain; it is up to the states to define this. So, I think the copyright status of works of the Puerto Rico government will be written in the local laws. But I could be wrong about that. John Vandenberg ^(chat) 09:46, 24 October 2009 (UTC)

I have made a feeble attempt at starting Law of Puerto Rico, and put the relevant section of the United States Code on Wikisource. The Spanish local laws are definitely public domain and could be added to Wikisource at s:es:Leyes de Puerto Rico, however I am not sure about the copyright status of the English translations which are floating around. John Vandenberg^(chat) 12:04, 24 October 2009 (UTC)