{"id":1290,"slug":"us-federal-works-public-domain-opa","title":"US federal government works are generally public domain — OPEN Government Data Act (P.L. 115-435) + 17 U.S.C. §105; agencies encouraged to use CC0","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["open-data","open-data-licensing"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** US federal government works are generally **public domain** (OPEN Government Data Act, **P.L. 115-435**; **17 U.S.C. §105**); agencies are encouraged to use **CC0**.\n\n**Source:** https://resources.data.gov/open-licenses/\n\n**Confidence:** Verified.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** US federal data (FRED, Census) is the lowest-friction class of open data — no attribution required, no share-alike obligation. Contrast with [[openstreetmap-odbl-license-share-alike]] for the share-alike case.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-data-driven-tools-smb-june-2026","title":"Research brief: live data and data-driven tools for SMBs — when it's an edge, when it's overkill (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"openstreetmap-odbl-license-share-alike","title":"OpenStreetMap uses the Open Database License (ODbL) — attribution + share-alike on derivative databases; \"produced works\" (rendered maps) can be licensed freely","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"rule-read-the-license-before-building-on-open-data","title":"R3 — Read the license before building a product on open data; CC0 ≠ CC BY-SA ≠ ODbL","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-20T16:57:38.947Z","updated_at":"2026-06-20T16:57:38.947Z"}