# Free Photographs of Politicians

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photographs-of-politicians/235361>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 20, 2004, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photographs-of-politicians/235361 "2004-03-20T06:03:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ZomZom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zomzom/32/5620_2.png) [@ZomZom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZomZom)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photographs-of-politicians/235361/1 "2004-03-20T06:03:47Z")

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I’m planning on creating a blog of sorts that will focus on the stupid things that politicians do, and would like to include some photographs. Am I correct in assuming that use of such photos would not fall under fair use, and if so, can someone point me to a resource where I could get some free photos of politicians?

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**Author:** ![Pencil\_Pusher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Pencil\_Pusher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pencil_Pusher)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photographs-of-politicians/235361/2 "2004-03-20T06:47:19Z")

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> [@mangoldm](#):
>
> I’m planning on creating a blog of sorts that will focus on the stupid things that politicians do, and would like to include some photographs. Am I correct in assuming that use of such photos would not fall under fair use, and if so, can someone point me to a resource where I could get some free photos of politicians?

Its getting late, so I shouldn’t be pulling things out of my behind. But I will anyway.

Famous people generally don’t get the same rights of privacy as the rest of us. I think you can take pictures of politicians and use them however you want (exception: you can’t sell products and make it seem like they are sponsoring the product).

That being said, copyright in photographs are owned, not by the subject of the photograph, but by the photographer. Therefore, the person you need to ask permission from is NOT the politician, but whoever snapped the photo in the first place. If the photographer (or, if the photographer assigned his rights to, say, The Chicago Reader) got upset that you were using the photo, you might be liable for infringement. btw, I don’t know of any reason why such a use would be “fair use”

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**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photographs-of-politicians/235361/3 "2004-03-20T06:51:20Z")

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As far as I know, all government works can not be copyrighted. You might want to have a look at [whitehouse.gov](http://whitehouse.gov) to see if there are any appropriate pictures.

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**Author:** ![Pencil\_Pusher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b38774/32.png) [@Pencil\_Pusher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pencil_Pusher)\
**Post date:** [March 20, 2004, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/free-photographs-of-politicians/235361/4 "2004-03-20T07:14:20Z")

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> [@Shalmanese](#):
>
> As far as I know, all government works can not be copyrighted. You might want to have a look at [whitehouse.gov](http://whitehouse.gov) to see if there are any appropriate pictures.

I can’t believe I’m still up and still making stuff up. Oh well.

Anyway, the gov’mnt can’t create copyright, but they can acquire them. So, while a whitehouse photographer’s works are all in the public domain, the whitehouse can still maintain a copyright in a photo that it purchased from a contractor.