PES1 wrote:Hello!
As I'm always concerned about legality of any materials that I use I'd like to ask if all items at this website are legal ?
Please provide as full as information as possible i.e. why you think it is. I didn't see these materials on any US government sites and I'm not sure that they're in public domain , freely available and free of charge as you insist.
I wish it would be as you wrote.
PES1
You haven't looked very hard.

Almost all of the documents are available here:
http://www.eric.ed.gov/The copyright status depends on which country you live in and potentially which state of the US you live in.
Works in the US can be in the public domain for several reasons. You should definitely look at the Cornell University website:
http://www.copyright.cornell.edu/resources/publicdomain.cfmThe principal reasons on this site are:
1.The work was published and did not contain a copyright notice (i.e. a © symbol, date, and name of the copyright claimant). A "work" in this case is all printed material prior March 1, 1989 and and all audio material published between Feb 15, 1972 and March 1, 1989. The term "published" means that the "work" was available to the general public for purchase or loan. See the US copyright circular #3.
2. The work was created (published or not) by a employee of the US government as part of their normal duties. See US Copyright law 17 U.S.C. § 105.
Absolutely none of the works here contain a copyright notice except:1. Martin Sander's additional notes in the Korean Basic Course (New) section
2. Some of the DLI works have had their original photographs replaced with newer freely licensed "Creative Commons" or GFDL photographs. The photos are copyrighted, but the text is not. The photo licenses allow (actually encourage) free redistribution as long as the photographer is credited.
PRE MARCH 1, 1989
All of the pre-March 1, 1989 material (except for DLI "Headstart for Puerto Rico", see below) is documented to have been available to the general public prior to the date. For example, see the list of courses available for purchase to the public on the last page of the "Sinhala Basic Course Volume 1". Other works such as "Japanese Familiarization" were made available for loan from the Federal Depository Library system prior to the date. See the search box at
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/. Go to the advanced search area, as the general search box does not always work. Several of the DLI texts are listed here. Another listing of material for sale is given 1974 GSA catalog available as a PDF in the ERIC document #101752 at the ERIC website. This includes some of the other works not listed on the Federal Depository Library site.
Chinese module 1 text and workbook is listed as copyrighted in the US Copyrighted office, but the copies available on ERIC never had a copyright notice. The copies pointed to at
http://www.archive.org also lack the notice.
Both registration and notice is required.Pre Feb 15 1972 audio is not covered under federal copyright law. As far as the federal government is concerned, it is in the public domain. But it may be covered by US state statute or common law copyright.
Most state statutes only apply to non-commercial uses of the audio material (for example New York law 275.05 which only covers audio "with the intent to rent or sell, or cause to be rented or sold for profit, or used to promote the sale of any product, such article to which such recording was transferred" which does not have the permission of the owner of the master recording) Some states such as Florida and Minnesota exclude "educational" uses from their statutes.
This site is non-commercial and states that the material is for educational use.
That still leaves common law copyright. The law is unclear here. The 1909 copyright law excluded all works from copyright that were published by the US government, but copyright could be transferred. Of course the pre-1972 federal law did not cover audio. In most cases of pre-1972 audio, the work contained a phrase stating "all rights reserved". None of these works have that statement. If someone knows of a common law copyright ruling from any US state related specifically to a US government publish work, let me know.
US EMPLOYEE
Some of the works were created by US government employees. In this case an "employee" follows agency law. See
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1153/is_1_125/ai_85107273/. There are several criteria that may make one an employee such as:
1. Using employer provided materials
2. Being listed as an employee by the employer
3. Having the time and manner of the work specified by the employer
The preface of many of the books list the autors as titled employees of the FSI. The website
http://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/about/contact/personnel/1995/ lists the US State Department Employee directory for 1995. Many of the authors are listed as FSI employees.
Finally, the DLI work "Headstart for Puerto Rico" is listed as being almost complely created by the late Rick Berrios of the DLI (a US government employer). See section #8 " Remembering Rick Berrios, a colleague, a friend, a mentor." at
http://www.dli-alumni.org/Newsletters/NewsletterXXIII-Jul2009.htm. Other newsletters also mention the authors of some of the other DLI works as being DLI employees.
WHICH COUNTRY
Most countries are signatories of either the Berne Convention or TRIPS (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_parties_to_international_copyright_agreements). Under article 18 of the Berne convention, works that are already in the public domain due to expiration of their term when the country joins the Berne Convention are also in the public domain in all other countries that are in the convention." The US joined on March 1,1989. It's unclear if works that were never covered by copyright count as works that are in the public domain "due to expiration". Any work published after 1989 that is in the public domain in the US would also be in the public domain of countries that observe the "Rule of the shorter term". See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_the_shorter_term. Note that the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty article 22 covers the same situation for sound recordings.
CANADA
One exception to the above - Bi-lateral agreements take precedent over the Berne Convention.
For example, Canada Copyright Law 9(2) states:
"Nationals of other countries
Authors who are nationals of any country, other than a country that is a party to the North American Free Trade Agreement, that grants a term of protection shorter than that mentioned in subsection (1) are not entitled to claim a longer term of protection in Canada."
The FSI works are almost certainly copyrighted in Canada for 50 years after publication. Strangely enough, they were probably in the public domain up until the time section 9(2) was added to the copyright law as part of NAFTA.