Right of Publicity/Privacy and Public Domain Content

[skunker]

What is the name of your state? TEXAS

My question:

I have a photo of Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was scanned from the US National Archives and was taken by the US government during WWII. I am hoping to place this photo on my website and sell it ($2) in a high resolution format for people who want it. This is a "handling fee" that I am charging for bandwidth and service costs. I am not giving permission for someone to use this photo in their advertisement, if they were to do so. All I am doing is providing "access", for lack of a better word, rather than having the buyer go all the way to the National Archives to get it.

Can you tell me if this is illegal? I have several additional photos of generals and women working in aircraft factories during WWII.

 

[divgradcurl]

What is the name of your state? TEXAS

My question:

I have a photo of Dwight D. Eisenhower. It was scanned from the US National Archives and was taken by the US government during WWII. I am hoping to place this photo on my website and sell it ($2) in a high resolution format for people who want it. This is a "handling fee" that I am charging for bandwidth and service costs. I am not giving permission for someone to use this photo in their advertisement, if they were to do so. All I am doing is providing "access", for lack of a better word, rather than having the buyer go all the way to the National Archives to get it.

Can you tell me if this is illegal? I have several additional photos of generals and women working in aircraft factories during WWII.

No, this is not illegal in any way.

 

[skunker]

Thanks,
Do I need to put a terms of use/disclaimer on the site mentioning that it is up to the buyer to decide what copyright issues they need to worry about?

 

[divgradcurl]

Thanks,
Do I need to put a terms of use/disclaimer on the site mentioning that it is up to the buyer to decide what copyright issues they need to worry about?

No, that's not necessary. Since this is a public domain photo, there is no copyright to begin with.