Hi Chris.  I'm sorry I won't get to see you at WAML this fall.

I have two comments regarding aerial photography and copyright.  First, anything done for the federal government was done under contract and the US government does not copyright any of that.  Both the mosaics and the photos themselves are in the public domain.

Second, any aerial photography done for mapping purposes was done according to standardized specifications.  It does not involve any creativity, which is essential to establish a copyright.
Without creativity, nothing is copyrightable.  I would argue that no vertical aerial photography done for mapping purposes can even be copyrighted.  It doesn't matter if it was done by a private vendor like Fairchild or Mark Hurd, or for a state of local government.  There is simply no creativity involved.  Oblique aerials done for other purposes may be different.  Depending on how they were done, they could be considered to have creative content.  Think Ansel Adams.

I hope we will all be able to get together again in 2021.

Cheers.
David


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From: Maps-L: Map Librarians, etc. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Christopher Thiry
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2020 5:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: air photo mosaics

All,

Are the air photo mosaic (indexes) to U.S. Government agencies (Forest Service, USGS, BLM, SCS, etc.) in the public domain?  Or, because they say who (private companies) took the pictures, copywritten?

Most photos taken for U.S. Gov't agencies were contracted out.  They were flown, shot, developed, etc. by a private company, but the final results (photographs) became part of the public domain.

The photos, I believe, are in the public domain because they were paid for & delivered to a government agency.  It is rare that a non-government agency is listed on the photos themselves.

Christopher J.J. Thiry
Map & GIS Librarian
Academic Outreach Coordinator
Colorado School of Mines
Arthur Lakes Library
1400 Illinois
Golden, CO 80401
p. 303-273-3697
f. 303-273-3199
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http://www.mines.edu/library/