Harvesting Public Domain Images
Free Photos





         I was reading in "sellphotos.com" on pages 208 & 209 about how Tom Carroll from California sold a "Public Domain" image to DRS Technologies for their annual report for $875. My question is this. Since he can sell a "Public
 
Domain Image" to a professional publication, is it legal to burn images like that onto a CD (as a collection of images for someone to use as a screensaver or print out copies for personal use...(ie: someone has a child that likes photos of jet airplanes,) and then sell them say, on an Auction site like Ebay or Ubid?

         I understand that since I did not shoot the image, I don't own the copyright, but as long as I give credit to where credit is due either in a caption under the photo or as a "disclaimer" printed on the CD label (ie: photos courtesy of US Navy-Public Domain...) would it still be ok and legal? Any lawyers out there that specialize in this kind of thing?

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          You are on the right track. (Although a distinction to note is that Tom Carroll did not "sell" the image; he found the image for the market and charged a research fee.)

         When you work for the U.S. government, whether you are building a bridge, landscaping a new park, or taking a photograph, you are working for the people. So, the reasoning is -the people own the results. I'm surprised that more people have not come up with ways of selectively distributing the photos that are gathering dust in U.S. government archives. Tom Carroll's approach is certainly valid. And we'll no doubt see many mini-stock agencies like yours begin to use the advantages of the Internet to distribute public domain images that are available to the people for the asking.

         These stock images range from aviation (historical to modern; U.S. to Russian), naval (most countries represented), agriculture (historical as well as new and innovative), and photos from NASA, and even the Central Intelligence Agency, which believe it or not are also public domain and available (see page 212 in sellphotos.com).

SOME RESTRICTIONS

         The federal government (U.S.) cannot own copyright, but even so, not all photographs on ".gov" and ".mil" sites are public domain. For example, a private donor or a foundation might donate a copyrighted image to a federal institution with the restriction that the copyright of the image will eventually revert to the estate of the original owner. Same is true for some photographers who make photos for the government on a "work-for-hire" basis, in which case the images may be copyrighted by the photographer and not the government. If you find an image on a U.S. government Internet site, it is most likely useable as a public domain photo, but you'd need to confirm that.

         To learn how the government looks at this situation, check out pamphlet 195 at http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/195_copr.html.

         A good place to find the source of public domain images that have little or no publication restrictions on them is : http://mciu.org/%7Espjvweb/jvweb.html

         Governments outside the US often do retain the copyright of their images: For example, check out the Canadian site: http://cgp-egc.gc.ca/copyright/what-e.html .

         Most individual state governments in the United States do not place their work into the public domain and do in fact own the copyright to their photos. That's why it's not a good practice to lease images to a state Travel Department,
or Bureau of Economic Development. You might be required to give up your copyright.

         Be careful to check ownership information before including any presumably public domain photo in your collection. And always do the courtesy of citing where the photo came from. The government organization and photographer both enjoy the publicity.

THE INVOICE

         Tom Carroll used public images not only for educational and editorial purposes but also for advertising accounts. The photo you mention was a U.S. Government public domain photo. In his invoice Tom wrote: "Photo (Public Domain): no charge. Research and fulfillment: $875."

          By establishing the kind of CD or mini-stock agency that you mention, you are establishing a service to photo buyers which can save them time and money searching out highly specific images, both present-day and historical. Be sure to include descriptions of your mini-stock agency images also in a text-based photo search system such as our www.photosource.com/bank. --Rohn Engh

Rohn Engh, veteran stock photographer and publisher of "PhotoRESEARCHER Newsletter," has provided on-line information to photobuyers, photo researchers and photo editors for two decades. For info: http://www.photosource.com/photobuyer/.


           


           

Tommy Thompson

Kerry Kolb

Jon Saban

Jake Nelson