We collect pictures of Latin America from disperate public sources including images collected or curated by the U.S. Government. In good faith, we reproduce images on the web site that were produced by the U.S. government and are not governed by U.S. copyright protection. We also collect and display images that were published before 1922 and are no longer protected by U.S. copyright law. DDBSTOCK is not aware of any copyright protection or other restrictions on any image from a public source reproduced on the web site. However, any textbook publisher or researcher clearing rights for use of images from the public sources should consult the relevant photo use guidelines published by each public entity. We have collected URL's to the photo use guidelines for sources we commonly use below for reference.
We archive digital images of Latin America from various Nasa collections, FEMA collections, WPA collections, public university collections, state government collections, and collections maintained by the Library of Congress. We save and protect the digital files in our repository, which is not affected by federal budget constraints or ideology of the moment that might result in their removal or destruction. Our public collections are immune from actions and mandates that remove digital images from Federal Government and transitory public Web sites. We fully recognize that most image removal from public web sites results from fiscal constraints that prohibit web site maintenance, server maintenance, and continued procurement of high speed data circuits. We understand that transfer of public images to private, commercial, or paid web sites is not a decision made by the proud federal agencies that designed the original web sites to make their spectacular collections more available to the public. Regardless, millions of images are removed from government web sites and public access every year. It is our goal to identify and collect images of Latin America and the Caribbean so they will remain accessible and available after they disappear from original public sources.< /p>
We charge a fee for reproduction of the public images that we archive. Every image archived represents well over $175 in research, captioning, keywording, data circuits, storage, secure backup, and documentation. We do not claim copyright to any public images. If they are still available when you read this, then you may access them in the collections identified in our caption and source information. Should you need to acquire them from ddbstock, then you will need to pay a fee to support our ongoing archival research program and the associated Information Technology costs incurred.
We provide hyperlinks below to usage conditions published by the institutions represented in our collections. We are not their agents and we operate entirely outside their control. Registered trademarks and other protected material on the Web sites of the institutions included remain the exclusive property of those institutions and may not be used without their permission.
We rely on caption and ownership information provided on the public Web sites and can take no responsibility for the accuracy of such information. We refer you to contact information provided in the hyperlinks to our sources below.
Astronauts Pictures of Earth, NASA Use Policy
JPL Nasa Caltech Use Policy
Library of Congress Map Collections: Copyright and Other Restrictions
How to Cite Electronic Sources from the Library of Congress
Use of FEMA Photography and Audio/Visual Recordings
General Information on Copyright and Fair Use from the Library of Congress