Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Copyright status of work by U.S. subnational governments


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was   keep. Mark Arsten (talk) 03:27, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

Copyright status of work by U.S. subnational governments
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This is Wikipedia synthesis; we have a large table that has real information filled in a few places only (because reliable non-primary sources only have information for a few places.) Anything on this page is already on Copyright status of work by the U.S. government‎ though someone keeps trying to delete it off that page. Prosfilaes (talk) 06:44, 3 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep. State law is outside the scope of Copyright status of work by the U.S. government‎, so it should not be covered on that page. Federal copyright law only covers the federal government. I see no synthesis in the state law article and, even if there is any, that can be solved by ordinary editing. By WP:PRIMARY, it is acceptable to use primary sources, as long as they are reliably published (which State Codes are) and no original analysis of the primary sources is included in the article. I see no notability issues, so no reason to delete. Dricherby (talk) 08:42, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of United States of America-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 15:16, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Law-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 15:16, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Note: This debate has been included in the list of Lists-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 15:17, 3 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep State works copyright status in the US, like much other state law (see, e.g. State recognized tribes in the United States), is not a subset of federal law. Listing referenced law for 50 states is not synthesis. If not all states have information listed as yet, that is an argument for expansion via the normal editing process, not for deletion. 24.151.116.25 (talk) 17:08, 3 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep This nomination is no good, is it? The article was kept last month and will be kept next month and the month after that. Synthesis would involve matters such as drawing conclusions about differences between the laws of different states without support from reliable sources. This article does nothing of the sort. Thincat (talk) 18:48, 3 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep, and consider Incomplete_lists. (Note that we should be scrupulous in not over-interpreting the referenced statements—so in South Carolina, the fact that records are the "property of the people" doesn't definitively determine copyrightability. The article should continue to avoid original synthesis.) TheFeds 00:15, 5 July 2013 (UTC)


 * Keep The list is incomplete and a bit inconsistent in its formatting, but that is not good grounds for deleting it. This article provides important information about state copyright policies that is not available elsewhere on Wikipedia. Per WP:ATD: If the page can be improved, this should be solved through regular editing, rather than deletion. DavidinNJ (talk) 14:28, 5 July 2013 (UTC)
 * Keep. I landed on this page, not from Wikipedia, but from Commons, where I was looking for info on the Commons-worthiness of an official anti-crime poster from the New York City police department. While the page didn't answer my question, maybe some day it will.  But yes, the copyright policies of US states and local jurisdictions is a subject entirely separate from the policies of the Federal government.  This shouldn't even be all list, either; there have been copyright and copyrightability issues that have arisen when many states have abandoned the publication of their own judicial decisions and leave the job to West Publishing as the official reporter. - Smerdis of Tlön - killing the human spirit since 2003! 04:00, 8 July 2013 (UTC)
 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.