Climategate Emails: Copyrighted or Public Domain

[Cla68]

Are the ClimateGate emails and documents public domain or copyrighted? The emails and documents were subject to both US and UK FOIA regulations, but in this case the emails and documents were released without authorization by East Anglia University, the owner of the email server, located in the UK, upon which the documents resided. The research that the scientists were conducting was funded almost wholly by US and UK government public funds, which is why FOIA regulations applied.

Some of the emails were from US Government employees' official email accounts and appear to be discussing official business, i.e. government-funded research. So, would these emails automatically be public domain?

[Mr. Knowitall]

The fact that something can be obtained via FOIA, or is produced in full or in part based upon funding from a government grant, does not of itself mean that the writing is not subject to copyright or is in the public domain.