Copyright statement (US Government) in acknowledgments - what to do as a reviewer? I am currently reviewing a paper, which has this statement in the acknowledgements:


  The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting
  the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States
  Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, world-wide
  license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript,
  or allow other to do so, for United States Government purposes.
  Source


As a reviewer, I could simply ignore it. However, it seems rather weird to me, since usually after acceptance you have to sign a form which deals with exactly this kind of right transfer / copyright etc. The editors and referees do not have any legal power over this anyway.

Does my role as a reviewer also include to mention this to the editor who should forward it to the publisher, or should I simply ignore it, on the risk that this statement potentially collides with the journal policies?
The article (i.e. its contents and references) are within your remit as a reviewer.

Checking copyright details and investigating any the legal ramifications will not be relevant to the review you should be doing.