14 DAY TRIAL // A sensitive FBI manual concerning methods of interrogation was submitted for copyright protection by the author, without acknowledging the fact that these kind of materials don't have to be copyrighted as they are not meant for public use.
The author's move led to a copy of the manual being left in the Copyright Office and then ending up at the Library of Congress, being publicly accessible for those interested in reading about sensitive FBI internal matters.
The copyright request was made back in 2010 by a high-ranking FBI agent who filed the “sensitive manual detailing the bureau's secret interrogation procedures with the Library of Congress, where anyone with a library card can read it,” notes Mother Jones.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) spent years trying to convince the Federal Investigation Bureau to release some of the institution's documents, and this particular document. When the FBI finally agreed, it released a heavily redacted version of the guidebook, with a huge amount of pages just blacked out.
After finding out about the original manual residing in the Library of Congress, it compared the books and revealed the amount of content missing. The manual was registered under the agent's own name and was a huge mistake, leading to public access to sensitive information.
The author didn't seem to know that documents that are not released to the public have no need for copyright, as who can plagiarize a book that officially doesn't exist? “Even if you wanted to, you couldn't violate the copyright because you don't have the document. It isn't available. The whole thing is a comedy of errors,” Julian Sanchez, Cato Institute fellow, studying copyright policy told Mother Jones.
The manual was highly criticized, as expected, for endorsing harsh methods of interrogation and relating to CIA torture methods. The guidebook was also accused of potentially inducing false confessions and raised concerns about the accuracy of FBI's collected information.