File talk:StateSealofNewMexico.gif

Copyright violation?

I see that the rules for US Government copyrights apply to federal government only and not state, but how is this not in the public domain? All other state seals are in the public domain and are on wikipedia. --Muboshgu (talk) 03:03, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

You can't just assume something is in the public domain, you need to present evidence. If you look at the permissions on other state seals, many say that they are works of the US Government (probably not true), or that they drew it themselves (probably true, but it is then a derivative work and they still don't own the copyright). Many state seals are so old that their copyrights have expired, but you would still have to prove that to be the case. The easiest way to solve this problem is not to prove that it is public domain, but to upload it to the English Wikipedia and give a fair-use rationale for it. See for example en:Tennesee and en:File:Tennesseestateseallrg.png. --Uncia (talk) 04:00, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Alright. Here's evidence it's in the public domain--Muboshgu (talk) 13:19, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Public domain	This media file is in the public domain in the United States. This applies to U.S. works where the copyright has expired, often because its first publication occurred prior to January 1, 1929, and if not then due to lack of notice or renewal. See this page for further explanation.	United States
	This image might not be in the public domain outside of the United States; this especially applies in the countries and areas that do not apply the rule of the shorter term for US works, such as Canada, Mainland China (not Hong Kong or Macao), Germany, Mexico, and Switzerland. The creator and year of publication are essential information and must be provided. See Wikipedia:Public domain and Wikipedia:Copyrights for more details.

Thanks, I have removed the copyvio tag and added information about first publication. --Uncia (talk) 16:02, 13 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. I've been editing on Wikipedia a while now but I'm new with images. I'll be more specific with copyright issues in the future. --Muboshgu (talk) 18:12, 13 January 2009 (UTC)