Just out of curiosity -- what is the " NIMH Data Archives " which holds the copyright

[yarikoptic]

AFAIK work of government is not subject to copyright, so in public domain.

[obenshaindw]

I think you are probably correct in this regard, this language is produced as part of the generic GitHub template for a software license based on the name of the organization associated with this GitHub account. We did want to include a license to make clear that the code is freely available for users to do with as they wish, as well as include the generic disclaimer of no warranty or liability in the use of the software (mostly because of what I read here), but probably we need to revisit if this is in-fact public domain.

[yarikoptic]

I guess having a disclaimer wouldn't hurt indeed... I wondered, in general, if non-copyrighted works could be released under PDDL or CC0 licenses which somewhat implying having a copyright.

random googled up examples: http://www.cendi.gov/publications/04-8copyright.html

Copyright Notice

This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. Foreign copyrights may apply.
...
2.4.5  Are copyright notices required on materials on Government Web sites? 

It is good practice to provide notice whenever possible, even though it is not required. In addition, there may be disclaimers and use notices that apply to use of the material. Check your Agency policy regarding Web site notices. For further discussion, see the CENDI Whitepaper, Don't Keep the Public Guessing: Best Practices in Notice of Copyright and Terms & Conditions of Use for Government Website Content (CENDI/04-4). Also see examples listed in Section 6.0.

with references within -- might help... one of the still working references:

http://www.fnal.gov/pub/disclaim.html

Fermilab Disclaimers, Copyright Status and Site Use Notice

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) is operated by Fermi Research Alliance, LLC. for the U.S. Department of Energy under contract DE-AC02-07CH11359. As such the following rules apply:

DISCLAIMER OF LIABILITY: Documents available from this server were prepared as accounts of work sponsored by an agency of the U.S. Government. Neither the U.S. Government nor any agency thereof, nor Fermi Research Alliance, LLC., nor any of their employees or officers, makes any warranty, express or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information, apparatus, product or process disclosed, or represents that its use would not infringe privately owned rights.

DISCLAIMER OF ENDORSEMENT: Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof. The views and opinions of document authors do not necessarily state or reflect those of the U.S. Government or any agency thereof, Fermilab, or Fermi Research Alliance, LLC.

COPYRIGHT STATUS: Documents authored by Fermilab employees are the result of work under U.S. Government contract DE-AC02-76CH03000 and are therefore subject to the following license: The Government is granted for itself and others acting on its behalf a paid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in these documents to reproduce, prepare derivative works, and perform publicly and display publicly by or on behalf of the Government.

which I believe gets close to the ideal statement. But there might be some centrally approved/encouraged wording from NIH I guess somewhere... would be neat to know.

http://github.com/afni/afni is another NIH product but I haven't found a clear statement+disclaimer within doc . @afni-rwcox @afni-rickr -- is there some overarching generic statement for Public Domain + all necessary disclaimers you know NIH administration is happy with?