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A comment on Killing TurboTax. Parent comment

Re:Killing TurboTax by edoceo on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @12:37PM (#26331753)
Generally no. Data you get from FOIA requests is generally limited with what you can do with it. State specific laws, your use-case not withstanding
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Re:Killing TurboTax by EvanAnderson on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @12:46PM (#26331891)
The IRS is a US federal agency, though. They can claim no copyright on the code. It should be be public domain.
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Re:Killing TurboTax by vharuck on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @01:14PM (#26332288)
Unless it was written by a contractor who then gave the copyright to the IRS. This is a very common situation. The federal government is not barred from having copyrights.
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Re:Killing TurboTax by EvanAnderson on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @01:28PM (#26332459)
That would be a fun legal rabbit hole to descend into.
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Re:Killing TurboTax by ohyeshedid on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @02:16PM (#26333019)
I don't know about fun, but it would definitely be expensive.
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Re:Killing TurboTax by EvanAnderson on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @02:24PM (#26333112)
"Fun" from a research perspective. (I've got friends who are IP lawyers and enjoy talking about this stuff.)
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Re:Killing TurboTax by ed25519FUUU on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @01:46PM (#26332655)
FOIA results can definitely go into public domain. That's sort of the point.
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Re:Killing TurboTax by ska on Wednesday March 03, 2021 @02:41PM (#26333311)
> That's sort of the point.

It really isn't - the point is freedom access, not free use. Information acquired this way doesn't magically become public domain, it may (or may not) have other constraints on it.

See e.g. https://www.justice.gov/oip/blog/foia-update-oip-guidance-co...

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