Copyright at NPS

Can Amazon.com or other sites sell my thesis?

Answer:  It depends. If you are a US government employee, YES, they may reformat it and sell it as long as they credit you as the author.  

If you are a non-US federal government employee, probably NO, but IT DEPENDS on your contractual agreement with your employer/agency.  Check with your legal counsel and they can issue a cease-and-desist if it is not appropriate.

It is the policy of NPS that faculty, staff, and students of NPS abide by the following laws and instructions with respect to all use of copyrighted materials while at NPS.

The answer is "it depends" on what kind of student you are.  What kind of student are you? 

U.S. copyright protection is not available for any work of the United States Government (17 U.S. Code Section 105), including works done by US federal government employees, which includes most NPS students.  These works may be freely reused and repurposed without permission; however, credit must be given to the author of the work.

International, non-federal CHDS, and contractor students enrolled at NPS are not necessarily US federal employees so their work may be copyrighted and may not be reproduced, repurposed, or sold without the student's or her/his agency's explicit permission. Individuals in this category who find their work "for sale" may wish to explore formal cease-and-desist procedures with individual publishers to request takedown of their copyrighted works. 

NPS students and their faculty advisors sign thesis/dissertation/capstone release agreements that permit NPS-student authored works to be distributed to NPS and DOD websites in accordance with the security classification(s) and distribution statement(s) selected by the author(s).  

NOTE: NPS makes student thesis work publicly accessible in via these sources: