NEC copyright question

[Gleb Arshinov <gleb@CS.Stanford.EDU>]

    Alan> Would anyone mind commenting on the copyright, which seems
    Alan> to be this code at the beginning of NEC2D.F.

Alan, my understanding is that programs written by US Government are
not copyrightable, are automatically become property of all of us
(hmm, not sure if you Brits qualify as us, though :-), i.e. they are
Public Domain.  Now, the comments in the code say:

C                ***********NOTICE**********
C     THIS COMPUTER CODE MATERIAL WAS PREPARED AS AN ACCOUNT OF WORK
C     SPONSORED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.  

I am not sure of legal meaning of word sponsored.  I would guess that
sponsored is equivalent to "subcontracted."  In most contracts for
software development all the intellectual rights end up belonging to
the party that pays the money, in this case US government, thus making
this PD software.  Furthermore, lets look at this phrase, 

C     NEITHER THE UNITED
C     STATES 
<snip>
C     REPRESENTS THAT ITS USE WOULD NOT INFRINGE PRIVATELY-OWNED RIGHTS.

in a way implies (in a rather twisted way) that this is a PD work (ie
that they don't have any claims for it, and they probably think that
noone else does).  Hope this helps,

Gleb

PS If you don't get a more  definitive answer from someone more
qualified in the subject matter, I can probably run this by my "Law
for CS Professionals" prof.