ABSTRACT
The copyright laws are based on The Copyright Act of 1976 which was enacted on October 19, 1976. In 1998, Congress increased the duration of copyrights by 20 years by the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA). Ownership of the copyright may be transferred in whole or in part, by suitable contract, will, etc. The government respects copyrighted works and does not want any so marked delivered unless the government is given a license or another arrangement is negotiated by the contractor. Extensive guidance is supplied for selecting the appropriate rights in data clause. Contractors are normally authorized to claim copyright on technical or scientific articles published in academic, technical or professional journals. In such cases the Government is granted a paid-up nonexclusive, irrevocable, worldwide license to reproduce and prepare derivative works. Additional data requirements may be added to contracts for experimental, research and development makes it impossible to accurately predict the need for the delivery of such data.
