Terms Used In U.S. Code > Title 20 > Chapter 44 > Subchapter II - General Provisions

• Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
• Appropriation: The provision of funds, through an annual appropriations act or a permanent law, for federal agencies to make payments out of the Treasury for specified purposes. The formal federal spending process consists of two sequential steps: authorization
• Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. ^{Source: OCC}
• Board: shall mean the Benefits Review Board. See 33 USC 902
• Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
• Compensation: means the money allowance payable to an employee or to his dependents as provided for in this chapter, and includes funeral benefits provided therein. See 33 USC 902
• computer program: is a set of statements or instructions to be used directly or indirectly in a computer in order to bring about a certain result. See 17 USC 101
• Continuance: Putting off of a hearing ot trial until a later time.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• copies: includes the material object, other than a phonorecord, in which the work is first fixed. See 17 USC 101
• county: includes a parish, or any other equivalent subdivision of a State or Territory of the United States. See 1 USC 2
• Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
• Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
• deputy commissioner: means the deputy commissioner having jurisdiction in respect of an injury or death. See 33 USC 902
• digital transmission: is a transmission in whole or in part in a digital or other non-analog format. See 17 USC 101
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• financial gain: includes receipt, or expectation of receipt, of anything of value, including the receipt of other copyrighted works. See 17 USC 101
• Fiscal year: The fiscal year is the accounting period for the government. For the federal government, this begins on October 1 and ends on September 30. The fiscal year is designated by the calendar year in which it ends; for example, fiscal year 2006 begins on October 1, 2005 and ends on September 30, 2006.
• Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
• individual: shall include every infant member of the species homo sapiens who is born alive at any stage of development. See 1 USC 8
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• mask work: is a series of related images, however fixed or encoded&mdash. See 17 USC 901
• oath: includes affirmation, and "sworn" includes affirmed. See 1 USC 1
• Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
• officer: includes any person authorized by law to perform the duties of the office. See 1 USC 1
• person: means individual, partnership, corporation, or association. See 33 USC 902
• Personal property: All property that is not real property.
• phonorecords: includes the material object in which the sounds are first fixed. See 17 USC 101
• publicly: means &mdash. See 17 USC 101
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
• State: means a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any other territory or possession of the United States. See 1 USC 7
• Subpoena: A command to a witness to appear and give testimony.
• subscription: includes a mark when the person making the same intended it as such. See 1 USC 1
• Testimony: Evidence presented orally by witnesses during trials or before grand juries.
• United States: when used in a geographical sense, comprises the several States, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the organized territories under the jurisdiction of the United States Government. See 17 USC 101
• United States: when used in a geographical sense means the several States and Territories and the District of Columbia, including the territorial waters thereof. See 33 USC 902
• useful article: is a n article having an intrinsic utilitarian function that is not merely to portray the appearance of the article or to convey information. See 17 USC 101
• vessel: includes every description of watercraft or other artificial contrivance used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water. See 1 USC 3