Copyrighted Geotechnical Reports 1

[MTNClimber]

This question is for the engineers in the USA. I've noticed that geotechnical reports from some companies are copyrighted. Does anyone know why companies are doing that and if there is any real legal action that can be taken if someone else uses their language? It just seems odd to me.

 

[Ron]

Yes, a copyright is valid. They do this to protect their work product/intellectual property as many engineers will copy (in some cases verbatim) parts of other's reports to use in their own without permission and without citation. That's a bit of an ethical breach but I've seen it done many times.

About 3 years ago I got a call from one of my former colleagues . I had written a geotechnical report for a large project in the Bahamas. He called to ask if he could cite the report in their report. He asked for written permission. I gave it of course. He was a very senior engineer with a prominent firm in Canada, with which I was formerly associated. In my dealings with my Canadian colleagues, this approach was seemingly the norm. In the US, that is not the case, unfortunately.




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[MTNClimber]

Makes sense. I’m partnering with someone to open our own shop. Started digging through my old reports and realized one company had copyrighted their reports. Sounds like we should do the same.

 

[fattdad]

Where I struggle is when a public agency hires a consultant. What should be the expectation on copyright? It's all headed to the public domain, or at least that's how I see it.

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[MTNClimber]

I guess I would look at it similar to how a defense contractor works with the federal government. They develop and manufacturer weapons and, I would guess, are likely required to disclose how every piece of that weapon works. But the defense contractor doesn't give the government or other companies the right to reproduce the same weapon or even portions of the weapon without consent and paying for it.

Geotechnical engineers have to allow public agencies to reproduce the report, but the firm doesn't want their language being open for other firms to copy, for reasons pointed out by Ron. Other than reproduction, why would the agency want the copyright removed?

 

[IRstuff]

For military contracts, there's a distinction between paid work and intellectual property. During the proposal phase, the subcontractor identifies what they consider to be proprietary information/technology and the government has to deal with that. Anything that's fully paid for by the government is essentially in the public domain, barring classification issues. Ostensibly, the government can take the non-proprietary part of the deliverables and pass them on to someone else to build or improve; that's within the rights the government owns.

Most, if not all, things that the government produces cannot be copyrighted.

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[MiddleCE]

Your report is copyrighted without you needing to place a notation of copyright. You don't need a (c) or anything when you write a report. You are the author and others are held to copyright restrictions. If someone violates the law then YOU need to presue this, but it is my understanding there is no difference in your ownership with our without notice. If there is a noticce then others might not as likely copy your work.

 

[Settingsun]

I had understood the same as MiddleCE, that copyright is automatic. Check your contracts though, as client contracts might specify that they own anything you produce or that they have a licence to use, reproduce and distribute what you produce. Not sure how common that is in USA.

 

[IRstuff]

In the US ,copyright is automatic, but it doesn't hurt to remain the reader of that.

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