Reproduction of FAA charts

NJP_MAN

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Could a guy legally make and sell lets say Door mats with sectional charts printed on them ? Is there copywrite Infringement or are there reproduction rules associated with these charts? I have seen mouse pads and whatnot but not sure what the deal is.
 
Could a guy legally make and sell lets say Door mats with sectional charts printed on them ? Is there copywrite Infringement or are there reproduction rules associated with these charts? I have seen mouse pads and whatnot but not sure what the deal is.

Based on 17 USC 105 of the Copyright Law, I believe the answer is yes:

Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government, ...

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/105

Do some more digging to make sure.
 
Some more info that seems promising:

FAA_Copyright.jpg


http://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/flight_info/aeronav/faq/?print=go#q1h
 
And, in fact, I have a mouse pad with part of a sectional on it.
 
There was a guy who made jackets with the Chicago sectional printed on the tyvek for Airventure. I think he either had a Sun-n-FUn or Reno edition as well.

While the data is in the public domain, the FAA has been toying with abusing the public by finding out novel ways to charge to get access to the information. Apparently, the EFBs have really eaten into the paper chart sales.
 
While the data is in the public domain, the FAA has been toying with abusing the public by finding out novel ways to charge to get access to the information. Apparently, the EFBs have really eaten into the paper chart sales.

Something else that really ate into paper sales was that if you didn't buy $5K of charts per year, you couldn't be dealer. Arkansas went from charts being available at 28 (IIRC) airports to about 3.
 
When I worked for the Defense Mapping Agency we were concerned someone could take them, make dangerous changes, and sell them as official Gov products.
 
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