User talk:Noitall/Public Records


 * Tagged most of them as . -- tomf688  14:30, August 6, 2005 (UTC)


 * Great pics. Question1: how could these be copyrighted since they are old, really old? Question 2:If someone has a password to get into the archives, should it matter for copyrighting, since it is age that is one of the determinative factors?  Good find, anyhow.  --Noitall 14:35, August 6, 2005 (UTC)


 * Re: Question 1: Here is a useful checklist for determining whether something is in the PD:


 * 1) Everything published in the United States before 1923 is in the public domain.
 * 2) Works published 1923-1963 in the United States whose copyright was not renewed are in the public domain.
 * 3) Foreign works published before 1909 are in the public domain.
 * 4) Foreign works published 1909-1923 with copyright notices are in the public domain.
 * 5) Works created by a U.S. federal government officer or employee as part of the person's official duties are public domain. This would include items published by the U.S. Government Printing Office; IRS publications; supreme court decisions; official speeches, letters and documents by the President among many other items.


 * However, since a lot of images are reproductions or were created well after 1923 (even images of governors from the 17th century, for example), they likely cannot be placed into the public domain or used without the author's consent. Thus, I emailed the Maryland Archives people a while ago (scroll up on this talk page to the entry about "Harry"), and they said that images and materials on the non-password protected sections of the website are copyrighted and are free to be reused as long as credit was given to the archives.


 * Re: Question 2: The password protected sections have a lot of good information in them, but are protected to try to reduce information being taken and reprinted without permission. You can get access by emailing the people at the archives and they will give you the username and password to get into the protected areas.  Materials older than 1923 on their website, even if it is in the passworded section, cannot be copyrighted by the archives.


 * Some other good sites: Just in case you are curious, the Library of Congress has a prints and photographs division which has a ton of photographs online (mostly older ones, but still really useful). It's located here: http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html  Furthermore, most U.S. Gov websites have good photo libraries (White House Website, DOD website, etc). -- tomf688  15:00, August 6, 2005 (UTC)