FBI's Secret Interrogation Manual: Now At the Library of Congress 102
McGruber writes "The FBI Supervisory Special Agent who authored the FBI's interrogation manual submitted the document for copyright protection — in the process, making it available to anyone with a card for the Library of Congress to read. The story is particularly mind-boggling for two reasons. First, the American Civil Liberties Union fought a legal battle with the FBI over access to the document. When the FBI relented and released a copy to the ACLU, it was heavily redacted — unlike the 70-plus page version of the manual available from the Library of Congress. Second, the manual cannot even qualify for a copyright because it is a government work. Anything 'prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties' is not subject to copyright in the United States."
Key paragraph (Score:5, Funny)
"A document that has not been released does not even need a copyright," says Steven Aftergood, a government secrecy expert at the Federation of American Scientists. "Who is going to plagiarize from it? Even if you wanted to, you couldn't violate the copyright because you don't have the document. It isn't available."
"The whole thing is a comedy of errors," he adds. "It sounds like gross incompetence and ignorance."
It's genius, all the way down.
Re:leaks (Score:2, Funny)
More likely the FBI wanted to be able to charge anyone possessing or sharing it with copyright infringement.
Re:leaks (Score:4, Funny)
More likely the FBI wanted to be able to charge anyone possessing or sharing it with copyright infringement.
Makes sense. A few more years of RIAA lobbying and that will carry a heavier sentence than treason or espionage.