On Nov 26, 4:53 pm, David Joyner <wdjoy...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Fri, Nov 26, 2010 at 7:28 PM, Robert Dodier <robert.dod...@gmail.com> > wrote: > > On Nov 25, 5:02 pm, Rob Beezer <goo...@beezer.cotse.net> wrote: > >> On Nov 25, 3:35 pm, Donald Alan Morrison <donmorri...@gmail.com> > >> wrote: > > >> > "Abramowitz and Stegun: Handbook of Mathematical Functions" is another > >> > interesting topic source you mentioned. It is very nice that it's > >> > free to view. I'm surprised that it's just scanned images....someone > >> > could have run it through OCR, then LaTeX. > > >> The "Digital Library of Mathematical Functions" is the follow-on to > >> Abramowitz and Stegun. > > >>http://dlmf.nist.gov/ > > > The DLMF is not the same as A&S in at least one respect: > > whereas A&S is a work in the public domain, DLMF is copyrighted. > > > Now one might suppose that the DLMF is a work of a federal > > agency (NIST) and therefore cannot be copyrighted. > > The arrangement is this: NIST contracts with the authors > > (not NIST employees, I gather) to write it, then the authors > > assign the copyright to NIST. > > Is that legal? In any case, I've heard that version. I have also heard > another version: > NIST is one of the few (possibly only) fed agency which has an > exception to the "public domain" rule for official govt work. (True) > However, the exception is for a very specific purpose and > it isn't at all clear to me that NIST meets that provision in the copyright > law. I am not a lawyer but also I am very biased in favor of openness, > so my feeling on what NIST has done (copyright-wise) to the > DLMF) could very well be inaccurate. >
Sounds like an excellent reason for filing a FOIA Request. Hopefully NIST doesn't have a draconian FOIA fees table posted. The requester is supposed to be able to specify a maximum acceptable bill, so they don't pick up a huge tab without warning. -Don -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
