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" said:

At work we use the term "in the public domain" as referring to information that is public.

But the fact that it's public doesn't give you the right to copy it. Thus even though the tax manuals are available to the public if you can find where they've been put this week, you can't just put copies of them on your own web site or publish them.

But also note that copyright covers the *expression* of ideas, not of ideas themselves. So I can publish - without permission - something that says what the tax manuals do but in my own words and with my own examples. It's only copying the manuals themselves (or a substantive part of them) that's illegal.

" said:

At work we use the term "in the public domain" as referring to information that is public.

But the fact that it's public doesn't give you the right to copy it. Thus even though the tax manuals are available to the public if you can find where they've been put this week, you can't just put copies of them on your own web site or publish them.

But also note that copyright covers the *expression* of ideas, not of ideas themselves. So I can publish - without permission - something that says what the tax manuals do but in my own words and with my own examples. It's only copying the manuals themselves (or a substantive part of them) that's illegal.

I had assumed the information was somewhat authoritative as a previous employer advised us to contact there 24/7 helpline if we ran into any copyright queries in the reprographics department.

There help sheets like that where also our guidance for what we could and couldn't do.

I'd assumed they'd picked someone who knew what they where talking about after they got sued for copyright breach the first time round.

" said:

" said:

" said:

My assumption was that if it's on the internet it's in the public domain.

There is no such thing as "public domain" in UK copyright law.

Is there not?

That site seems to be giving general terms under the Berne Convention not a statement of UK law. It explicitly says "The above information is based on the current rules under the Berne Convention. The actual duration may be considerably higher under national laws. Under UK copyright law for example, the copyright duration is typically 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the last remaining author of the work dies."

Also it might be the case that it is defacto in the public domain without it being legally defined as such.

" said:

" said:

At work we use the term "in the public domain" as referring to information that is public.

But the fact that it's public doesn't give you the right to copy it. Thus even though the tax manuals are available to the public if you can find where they've been put this week, you can't just put copies of them on your own web site or publish them.

But also note that copyright covers the *expression* of ideas, not of ideas themselves. So I can publish - without permission - something that says what the tax manuals do but in my own words and with my own examples. It's only copying the manuals themselves (or a substantive part of them) that's illegal.

And this is why copyright law is so complicated and misunderstood.