US Black Heritage Project Copyright Rules

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US Black Heritage Project

This page is intended to give a basic overview of USA copyright pertaining to images and genealogy documents. It does not cover every aspect of copyright, other countries, nor the exceptions. If you aren't sure about whether you can upload an image to WikiTree, please ask for others' opinions in the Google group, on g2g, or in Discord. When in doubt, ASK.

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Did you know the minute someone puts their thoughts down in print or creates something original, it is protected by copyright law? They don't even need to publish or publicly show their work. Copyright law gives the sole right to that person to use their work in any way they wish and prevents others from using that work without their permission. Therefore, under copyright law, it is illegal to repost copyrighted images online or use more than a few sentences of copied text (with attribution).

Not only is it illegal, it's rude. Look at it this way. If you created a beautiful painting and a stranger comes into your house without asking and takes that painting off your wall, then brings it to their own house where they have decided it would look even better hung in their kitchen, how would you feel? This is what copyright infringement is like.

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Short version of U.S. copyright law:

Copyright law assigns a set of exclusive rights to authors/creators: to make and sell copies of their works, to create derivative works, and to perform or display their works publicly. These exclusive rights are subject to a time limit, and generally expire 70 years after the author's death or 95 years after publication. In the United States, works published before January 1, 1928, are in the public domain.

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When you follow the rules of copyright and post a photo on WikiTree, you must always state where you got the photo from, who took the original photo (if known), and what the copyright status is (or that you were given permission to post it). This is required by WikiTree. Please remember that WikiTree is a for-profit company and does not fall under educational fair use rules.

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BE CAREFUL! Images get passed around from website to website without attribution and end up not even being the people they are attached to. Always do your best to track an image back to its original source.

Here are some common situations and the rules surrounding them:

• WikiPedia--most (but not all) images on WikiPedia are free to use with attribution. How do you know? Click on the image and on the right it will say something like CC BY 3.0. This means you can use it if you follow their rules (the most common rule is you must give credit to the photographer). If it says "Fair Use" please do not use the photo. This means they are using a special rule to skirt around copyright and it's hard to know if they are doing it correctly. Always double check the original source when possible to make sure it is indeed okay to use the photo. WikiPedia doesn't always get it right and some people lie when they upload photos there.
• Find A Grave--most photos here are copyrighted! However, many of the people who take headstone photos will add a note to their profile that states whether you can repost their photos or not. If they don't have a note, send them a message and ask. Most people will say yes, as long as you give them the photo credit. Family photos are also copyrighted. Again, please send a message to whomever uploaded the photo and ask permission to reuse.
• Ancestry--most photos here are copyrighted! Even if it's your own family, you don't have permission to take a photo from Ancestry and post it to another website. Always send a message and ask for permission to repost from the person who owns the photograph.
• Family photos on any genealogy website -- Same as Ancestry above. Terms of service are different on each website. Always assume you need to ask permission from the photograph owner to repost.
• Government websites--All photos taken by the U.S. Government are in the public domain and can be used freely.
• Magazines and Newspapers (online or print)--Don't repost these photos unless they are pre-1927! They are usually owned by professional photographers who sell their work to the publications.
• Private Collections (personal, museums, historical societies)--Remember that 1927 rule? It doesn't necessarily apply to private collections because the copyright may have been retained by the new owner. And different collections have different rules and restrictions. Always double check the copyright and reuse information on images if they're in a private collection and ask permission before using. Most historical societies and museums will post copyright and reuse information with the photos.
• Random websites--most photos here are copyrighted! Always send a message to the website owner and ask permission before reposting a photo found online.
• Images of postage stamps--These are copyrighted under a special rule and cannot be posted unless they were created before 1971.
• Yearbook photos--Yearbooks printed before 1963 and yearbooks printed prior to a copyright notice are okay to use for genealogy. Yearbooks printed after 1977 are copyright restricted. (Note: You can't repost yearbook images from Ancestry. This is against their terms of service)
• Images of documents taken from a genealogy website--these are usually under copyright. Although the document is in the public domain, the person (or company) who took the photo of it retains the image copyright. Check the terms of service at each website you visit to see whether you can repost their document images. For most websites, this is against their terms of service.
• Photos of documents taken by you--you own the copyright.
• Family photos--This is murky territory because technically only the person who took the photo owns the copyright. However, use your best judgement about posting post-1927 family photos.

Public Domain

Looking for images and documents in the public domain?

• www.archive.org
• Some content at Smithsonian. Check each image for copyright and reuse information.
• Library of Congress Free-Use Set

Sources

• See: The Legal Genealogist Family Photos for a chart explaining copyright law based on the year the photo was taken.
• See Legal Genealogist Yearbooks for more information on yearbook copyright.
• See Cornell University Public Domain