That’s new. Legislative photos on LRC website now bear copyright notice. Use at your peril.

@SoDakCampaigns

I was working on something and went to a legislative profile.. and something brand new caught my eye.

The legislative photos for South Dakota State Legislators, which have long been considered and used by literally everyone as if they are public domain, are now adorned with a copyright notice for the photographer Johnny Sundby Photography, Inc./SD Legislative Research Council, and stamped that they are only available to “Use by Permission Only.”  This brand new notice has certainly caught my attention, as I think it was in the last 2 weeks that a legislator directed me to their photo as the one they preferred to use with a release, and there was no such notice at the time.

But as we’re seeing today, the copyright line is up, and everyone is on notice that legislators telling people to just use their LRC photo might just be verboten.  I’ve asked legislators if they had seen it or heard about it, and all are telling me that it’s news to them.

Certainly, LRC is allowed to sign a contract with the photographer (who has always done nice work, BTW) which allows them to retain copyright for their works.  But in way, it also sets a precedent that might make people uncomfortable, especially in the news media.

So now the media apparently shouldn’t  assume they are free to use the official legislative photos alongside stories of interest about that legislator, without first obtaining permission from a government office?

A little troubling, especially since those pictures are paid for with taxpayer dollars.

Something to think about.

6 thoughts on “That’s new. Legislative photos on LRC website now bear copyright notice. Use at your peril.”

  1. Those Bossturds! They are using public dollars to photo those in the legislatures and prop them on the web pages and then want to charge the world to show pictures of Ms. Frye-Mueller and Mullaly! It is not like people are making calendars called “The Hot Chicks of the Freedom Caucuses” out there.

    Are they? Please show blue links to where the public dollars can photo Ms. Mullaly and not post them on the internets. grudznick smells another Hollisterwegner mess-up here that will smite the leaderships of the legislatures with embarrassment. Does Mr. Hollisterwegner run the legislatures, or do the legislatures run Mr. Hollisterwegner?

  2. Here’s another thought that fellows like that Mr. H fellow might chase down, if he weren’t in lock step with the libbie Council of Research for the Legislatures. Could this Sundby fellow be an employee, moonlighting, or does he have a contract with the legislatures? It seems like public dollars advertising for Mr. Sundby. I’m sure he is a swell enough fellow, but I’m just sayin…

  3. Legislators paid the photographer at the time the photos were taken. Not sure if it was full cost or cost share, for what it’s worth.

  4. It’s a non-issue .. either the SD government paid for them or it didn’t.

    If it didn’t, IT must or take them down?

    The capture and arrest of ideas among the unwashed non-elite is an intended effect of copyright law.

    I plan to use the photographs and any other photographs that fit into the pedagogic vision of my work.

    It’s fair use.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use

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