Is a Masters thesis in the public domain?
<p>Is a Master's thesis submitted to the University of California Berkeley in the public domain (i.e., can be shared publicly by a person in USA on the internet without asking anybody's permission)?</p>

<p>No. The <a href="http://copyright.universityofcalifornia.edu/ownership/student-works.html" rel="nofollow">general policy of the University of California</a> is that students and faculty retain the copyright of scholarly works they create.  So the thesis is copyrighted by its author (unless the author has since transferred copyright for some reason).</p>

<p>However, if you contact the author and ask politely, there is a good chance that they will give you permission to share it.</p>

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