Before the Inauguration of President Barack Obama I posted about his administration’s decision to release Change.gov⎯the website of the Office of the President-Elect⎯under a Creative Commons licence. Of course US government material is automatically public domain, but the 501(c)(4) set up to transition Obama into The White House was not technically speaking a government agency so its content was copyrightable.

Unlike Change.gov, content on the new administration’s website at Whitehouse.gov does automatically pass into the public domain. But like Change.gov, any third-party content does not. Their use of a Creative Commons licence is designed to ensure that all of the website is reusable. The copyright statement reads:
Pursuant to federal law, government-produced materials appearing on this site are not copyright protected. The United States Government may receive and hold copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.

Except where otherwise noted, third-party content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Visitors to this website agree to grant a non-exclusive, irrevocable, royalty-free license to the rest of the world for their submissions to Whitehouse.gov under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Thank you again, Mr President!

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