Commons:Deletion requests/File:Margaret Kelliher.jpg
This photo is from the Minnesota Legislature website. The uploader asserts that it is in the public domain. However, Minnesota Attorney General Opinion 852 concludes: "State agency data constituting original works of authorship are protected by federal copyright law. Certain restrictions may be placed upon use of public data." (December 4, 1995) The photo is freely available to the public, but not free of copyright. Further, this is clearly a studio portrait and no information about the photographer is given. The upload says "Author Unknown". So it is not clear that this is state agency data, even if that is in the public domain, or merely a photo hosted on a legislative website. Jonathunder (talk) 21:18, 6 July 2010 (UTC)
The objections to this file really are pretty weak, given that this is Kelliher's official portrait hosted on her state legislative website, and given the already cited statutory information under Minnesota law. By this logic, all federal portraits, like the one on Barack Obama's page, could be problematic because that too is "clearly a studio portrait." It beggars credulity to believe that a portrait commissioned by the State of Minnesota is not a work of the State of Minnesota. And by Minnesota law, that means it's uncopyrighted. Mrfeek (talk) 16:33, 15 July 2010 (UTC)
- The portrait of Obama is a work of the federal government. Works of state governments, unlike the federal, are generally not public domain. For Minnesota specifically, we have the official opinion of the state attorney general that copyright does apply. Jonathunder (talk) 12:42, 17 July 2010 (UTC)
Deleted, not a work of the federal government, thus copyright violation. Kameraad Pjotr 19:34, 5 December 2010 (UTC)
