This image is in the public domain because it is a mere mechanical scan or photocopy of a public domain original, or – from the available evidence – is so similar to such a scan or photocopy that no copyright protection can be expected to arise. The original itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This work was created by a government unit (including state, county, city, and municipal government agencies) that derives its powers from the laws of the State of California and is subject to disclosure under the
California Public Records Act (Government Code § 6250 et seq.). It is a public record that was not created by an agency which state law has allowed to claim copyright, and is therefore in the public domain in the United States.
Records subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act
Although the act only covers “writing,” the Act, pursuant to
Government Code § 6252(g), states: “Writing” means any handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostating, photographing, photocopying, transmitting by electronic mail or facsimile, and every other means of recording upon any tangible thing any form of communication or representation, including letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols, or combinations thereof, and any record thereby created, regardless of the manner in which the record has been stored.
Agencies permitted to claim copyright
California's Constitution and its statutes do not permit any agency to claim copyright for "public records" unless authorized to do so by law. The following agencies are permitted to claim copyright and any works of these agencies should be assumed to be copyrighted outside of the United States without clear evidence to the contrary:
The Health and Human Services Agency (as to certain specified deliverables relating to the health information exchange). See
Health & Safety Code § 130251.15.
County of Santa Clara v. CFAC held that the State of California, or any government entity which derives its power from the State, cannot enforce a copyright in any record subject to the Public Records Act in the absence of another state statute giving it the authority to do so. This applies even if there is a copyright notice, so long as the State of California or one of its agencies (other than those listed above) is indicated as the copyright holder.
Note: Works that are considered "public records" but were not created by a state or municipal government agency may be copyrighted by their author; the
Supremacy Clause of the
United States Constitution prevents state law from overriding the author's right to copyright protection that is granted by federal law. For example, a state agency may post images online of the final appearance of a building under construction; while the images may have to be released by such agency since they are public records, their creator (eg. architecture/construction firm) retains copyright rights to these images unless the contract with the agency says otherwise. See:
Government-in-the-Sunshine Manual: To what extent does federal law preempt state law regarding public inspection of records?.
Copyrightable Works by the State in the United States: Works published by agencies that are permitted to claim copyright per state law should be tagged with {{
PD-US-GovEdict}} instead of this template due to the reasons listed on that template.
Disclaimer: The information provided, especially the list of agencies permitted to claim copyright, may not be complete. Wikimedia Commons makes no guarantee of the adequacy or validity of this information in this template (see
disclaimer).
This tag is designed for use where there may be a need to assert that any enhancements (eg brightness, contrast, colour-matching, sharpening) are in themselves insufficiently creative to generate a new copyright. It can be used where it is unknown whether any enhancements have been made, as well as when the enhancements are clear but insufficient. For known raw unenhanced scans you can use an appropriate
{{PD-old}} tag instead. For usage, see
Commons:When to use the PD-scan tag.
Note: This tag applies to scans and photocopies only. For photographs of public domain originals taken from afar,
{{PD-Art}} may be applicable. See
Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag.
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This image of simple geometry is ineligible for
copyright and therefore in the public domain, because it consists entirely of information that is common property and contains no original authorship.
Heptagon
This work includes material that may be protected as a
trademark in some jurisdictions. If you want to use it, you have to ensure that you have the legal right to do so and that you do not infringe any trademark rights. See our
general disclaimer. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal
copyright tag is still required.See
Commons:Licensing.
Information
Captions
Ticket balance printed on left. Magnetic strip holding data on right
