# Why don't we necessarily have a procedure for the author to willingly terminate their copyrights? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 23, 2017, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-necessarily-have-a-procedure-for-the-author-to-willingly-terminate-their-copyrights/785035 "2017-04-23T01:26:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-necessarily-have-a-procedure-for-the-author-to-willingly-terminate-their-copyrights/785035/41 "2017-04-26T23:26:50Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > If I write a book and give complete ownership of the copyrights to the United States, what happens? . . . > [@Acsenray](#): > > There is no legal person called “the United States” . . . What about my scenario? I write a book, and disclaim all personal rights, specifying this applies to my heirs also. Someone else publishes. My heirs sue him. Does my will supersede their interests? (I could, of course, bequeath my property to some third party, like Project Gutenberg. But I’m trying to go within the premise of the thread.) (Also, refreshing my question about physical property. Can I “get rid” of a car, in such a way that my heirs have no claim upon it?) There seem to be models that will work to have the desired effect. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-necessarily-have-a-procedure-for-the-author-to-willingly-terminate-their-copyrights/785035/42 "2017-04-26T23:30:57Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > Cite? One can give other property to the United States, why not intellectual property? You can’t give property to “the United States.” You can give property to the government, a government agency, or some private entity in trust to be used for the public good. But that’s not “the United States” in the sense of the public domain in copyright law. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2017, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-necessarily-have-a-procedure-for-the-author-to-willingly-terminate-their-copyrights/785035/43 "2017-04-26T23:34:03Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > I’m not sure what you mean by the copyrights the United States owns. Government documents are not copyright in the first place, except for a few special exemptions, so the U.S. does not own any. You are free to publish government documents, charge money for them, alter them, or anything else you please. A famous case is the illustrated edition of Nixon’s Commission on Pornography Report. Works created by the officials or employees of the US government in the course of their employment are not subject to copyright. The US government can obtain ownership of copyrighted works through other means. For example, if a publishing house fails to pay its taxes and the IRS seizes the business, that does not put all of the publishing house’s works into the public domain. Similarly, if a publishing company is found to be a front for a drug cartel, the US government can seize its assets. This, also, does not put the works into the public domain. The US government can also buy copyrighted works. Again, these do not go into the public domain. The government can own the copyright on works it buys from the private sector. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-necessarily-have-a-procedure-for-the-author-to-willingly-terminate-their-copyrights/785035/44 "2017-04-27T13:00:50Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > The Copyright Office is a department of the Library of Congress. Good point. It’s a separate department within the LoC. The Librarian is the overall head of the Copyright Office, but other than that they aren’t very well connected. * * * I had wondered before if one could assign one’s copyright to the US Government (which is an actual legal entity that can own property including, in some cases, copyrights). But that isn’t the same as most government produced works which were never copyrighted in the first place. Also, I don’t see a mechanism whereby the Government can easily accept such an assignment. I’m sure the officials involved have enough work without sifting thru questionable documents sent to them assigning copyrights to the Government. In addition, consider: What if the Government did accept assignments and then turned around and auctioned off those rights to others? And the new holders decide to start charging feeds? Even if Creative Commons or some such set up an entity which accepted assignments of copyrights and promised to never charge fees, there could still be problems. E.g., CC gets sued for something, loses, the entity gets taken over by the plaintiffs and decides to start charging fees. Lawsuits ensue. As mentioned, not knowing who actually controls the copyright on something is a big headache. So the fewer transfers the better. Best to have just the original creator involved if possible. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-necessarily-have-a-procedure-for-the-author-to-willingly-terminate-their-copyrights/785035/45 "2017-04-27T15:46:21Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > For example, if a publishing house fails to pay its taxes and the IRS seizes the business, that does not put all of the publishing house’s works into the public domain. > > Similarly, if a publishing company is found to be a front for a drug cartel, the US government can seize its assets. This, also, does not put the works into the public domain. Those are not government documents. > [@](#): > > The US government can also buy copyrighted works. Again, these do not go into the public domain. The government can own the copyright on works it buys from the private sector. They can? Can you give examples of this? (I presume you don’t mean physical copies of copyrighted works, for those are just as irrelevant to the argument as your earlier examples.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-dont-we-necessarily-have-a-procedure-for-the-author-to-willingly-terminate-their-copyrights/785035.md?page=2)