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Defense Civilian Faculty Copyright Act of 2025
To amend title 17, United States Code, to provide for the royalty-free use by Federal Government of literary works produced by civilian faculty members of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in the course of such employment, and for other purposes.
Summary
This bill amends federal copyright law to include the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in the category of government entities whose employees' literary works are automatically owned by the Federal Government. Literary works created by civilian faculty members at the university in the course of their employment will be considered Federal Government works and will not be subject to copyright protection. This means such works can be used royalty-free by the government and are freely available to the public. The bill makes conforming amendments to reorganize the statutory references.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Sponsor (1)
- Rep. Bacon, Don [R-NE-2] (R-NE)
Actions (2)
- Dec 11, 2025 Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. · house
- Dec 11, 2025 Introduced in House
Similar bills (6)
Bills with similar text or summary — includes reintroductions across Congresses. Ranked by semantic similarity of the bill text (computed locally); a neutral discovery aid, not a claim the bills are duplicates.
Full text
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
December 11, 2025
Mr. Bacon introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL
To amend title 17, United States Code, to provide for the royalty-free use by Federal Government of literary works produced by civilian faculty members of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in the course of such employment, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the “Defense Civilian Faculty Copyright Act of 2025”.
SEC. 2. ROYALTY-FREE USE BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF LITERARY WORKS PRODUCED BY CIVILIAN FACULTY MEMBERS OF THE UNIFORMED SERVICES UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH SCIENCES IN THE COURSE OF SUCH EMPLOYMENT.
(a) Use by Federal Government.—Section 105 of title 17, United States Code, is amended, in subsection (d)(2)—
(1) by redesignating subparagraphs (L) through (N) as subparagraphs (M) through (O), respectively;
(2) by inserting after subparagraph (K) the following new subparagraph (L):
“(L) Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.”.
(b) Conforming Amendments.—Such section is further amended, in subsection (c)—
(1) in paragraph (1), by striking “subparagraphs (A) through (K) of subsection (d)(2) and subparagraph (L)” and inserting “subparagraphs (A) through (L) of subsection (d)(2) and subparagraph (M)”;
(2) in paragraph (2), by striking “subsection (d)(2)(L)” and inserting “subsection (d)(2)(M)”;
(3) in paragraph (3), by striking “subsection (d)(2)(M)” and inserting “subsection (d)(2)(N)”; and
(4) in paragraph (4), by striking “subsection (d)(2)(N)” and inserting “subsection (d)(2)(O)”. <all>
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