[cowsandmilk]

That isn't a NASA policy, that is the law about works by government employees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_status_of_work_by_th...

This is actually reflected in the copyright agreements at every major journal. See, for instance, Form B at the ACS journals.

http://pubs.acs.org/page/copyright/journals/index.html

The difference is in whom the employer is. If you are employed by a university doing work on a government grant, you are not a federal employee, so the work is copyrighted.

[TallGuyShort]

I suspected the all-government-employees thing but wasn't aware of the journal copyright aspect. Thanks for clarifying with sources!