Commons:Requests for comment/Third-party images published by the National Weather Service

Summary

This RfC is to gather opinions on three questions that frequently arise around the copyright and licensing status of images sourced from the National Weather Service (NWS):

• Q.1 whether the general disclaimer on weather.gov can be relied on as evidence of permission that images created by members of the general public and other third parties that were published by the NWS were released into the public domain.
• Q.2 whether fourth-party attributions (for example, by media companies republishing an image from weather.gov) can be relied on as evidence of permission, either solely or in combination with the above.
• Q.3 whether a specific footer found on some weather.gov pages (example) can be understood as a free license.

The objective is to:

• provide clarification on what kinds of images from weather.gov and its predecessor sites are permissible on the Commons
• provide a centralised discussion that can be referenced in current and future Deletion Requests
• if consensus is that the general disclaimer cannot be relied on in this way
  • add a section to COM:PRS based on this discussion
  • inform a redesign of the {{PD-NWS}} template based on this discussion

Background

The National Weather Service (NWS) is a US federal government agency within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). As such, materials produced by the NWS are ineligible for copyright, and its websites are a valuable source for weather-related imagery in the public domain, including weather maps and charts, infographics, and photos of the aftermath of severe weather events.

The NWS has over 120 regional offices which publish content under the weather.gov domain. Prior to around 10-15 years ago, these offices published their content under noaa.gov. This is relevant because not all images were migrated across to new pages on weather.gov, and many that we have here on the Commons are now only known from their previous locations as archived on archive.org. This RfC should be understood also to apply to images sourced from the NWS on any of those pages that linked to the weather.gov general disclaimer

The US National Weather Service publishes a large amount of third-party content. This content comes from media outlets, stock imagery licensors, and submissions by the general public.

Since 2009, contibutors to the Commons have uploaded third-party images sourced from weather.gov and other NWS websites under the rationale that:

• R.1 the general disclaimer says "The information on National Weather Service Web servers and Web sites is in the public domain, unless specifically annotated otherwise, and may be used freely by the public." (The precise wording has changed slightly over time, but has remained essentially the same since at least 2009).
• R.2 a disclaimer for public submissions of photos was found on a page by the Sioux City regional office that stated "By submitting images, you understand that your image is being released into the public domain. This means that your photo or video may be downloaded, copied, and used by others."

These rationales became enshrined in the language of the {{PD-NWS}} template in 2009.[1]

Historically, Commons contributors relying on these rationales understood the disclaimer at R.2 to apply to all images submitted by members of the public to the NWS. This was held to be true in multiple DR discussions notwithstanding the passive nature of the disclaimer and the great unlikelihood that a member of the public sharing an image with the NWS via email or social media could be reasonably expected to be aware of the existence of this page.

Research in 2024 has uncovered that at different times and simultaneously, various regional NWS offices of the National Weather Service have held contests or other public outreach exercises soliciting images from the public under a very wide range of terms and conditions. A few of these explicitly made release into the public domain a condition of submission, most did not, and at least one was ambiguous. Sets of terms and conditions discovered so far are set out below.

An email from the present author (User:Rlandmann) to the NWS Sioux City office seeking clarification of whether these conditions should be understood to apply to all image submissions by the public to the NWS not only resulted in the NWS legal team stating that the disclaimer should not be understood this way, but resulted in the NWS Sioux City office removing any reference to the public domain from their disclaimer.

A5. Excerpt from email from NWS Sioux Falls to User:Rlandmann

"... Our apologies for the delay in a response, but we wanted to run your question through our legal team before replying. No, not all images credited to members of the general public are in the public domain on weather.gov. In some cases, the credited image creator has only given permission for the National Weather Service to use the image on NOAA websites.
The disclaimer page that you cited in your email was created specifically for a prior photo submission contest and since has been used occasionally when requesting images from the public taken during specific storm events. It is the opinion of the legal team that they "do not believe a disclaimer, alone, can be used to transfer a copyright holder's ownership interest to NOAA or to abandon the copyright interest to the public domain". Since then, we have removed the questionable language on the disclaimer page...."

Reliance on this rationale (R.2) therefore depends being able to establish with reasonable certainty that a particular image was submitted under a particular set of terms and conditions. Examples where we can establish such a connection are extremely rare, but do exist, such as at the photo page previously published by the La Crosse, WI regional office.

The question remains about how to interpret the words of the general disclaimer quoted at R.1.

Q.1. Is the NWS general disclaimer evidence of permission?

The passages in the NWS general disclaimer that relate to third-party content are:

A1. Pertinent sections of the general disclaimer on the weather.gov website:

"The information on National Weather Service (NWS) Web pages are in the public domain, unless specifically noted otherwise..."

and

"Use of Third-Party Data and Products
Third-party information and imagery are used under license by the individual third-party provider. This third-party information may contain trade names, trademarks, service marks, logos, domain names, and other distinctive brand features to identify the source of the information. [...] Please contact the third-party provider for information on your rights to further use these data/products."

Historically, contributors relying on R.1 as a rationale for an image being in the public domain have considered the first of these two statements in isolation from the second. A belief has emerged that the words "unless specifically noted otherwise" means that the NWS is making an assertion that all images on their websites that do not have an explicit copyright notice either:

• embedded in them or
• published in their caption

are in the public domain. I'll refer to this as "the historical interpretation" and fortunately, it is very easily testable.

Even assuming that "information" in the context of that passage is even intended to apply to images, there are several problems with this position.

P.1.1. The historical interpretation of "unless specifically noted otherwise" is inconsistent with the second passage that states that "Third-party information and imagery are used under license by the individual third-party provider."

If third-party images are being used by the NWS under licence, then those images are not in the public domain. If they were, then the third parties would not need to license them to the NWS, and indeed could not license them to the NWS.

Read together, the most reasonable interpretation of the disclaimer is that the NWS "specifically notes" images that do not belong to them and which therefore cannot be presumed to be in the public domain.

P.1.2. Direct communications with the NWS to date confirm that the historical interpretation is not how the NWS intends the disclaimer to be read:

A4. Excerpt from email from NWS La Crosse to User:Hurricanehink

"... Our belief is that someone can still allow us to use an image on our website, but can still hold their intellectual property rights. You may need to go directly to the individual(s) that contributed imagery for additional permissions...."

and

A5. Excerpt from email from NWS Sioux Falls to User:Rlandmann

"... Our apologies for the delay in a response, but we wanted to run your question through our legal team before replying. No, not all images credited to members of the general public are in the public domain on weather.gov. In some cases, the credited image creator has only given permission for the National Weather Service to use the image on NOAA websites.
The disclaimer page that you cited in your email was created specifically for a prior photo submission contest and since has been used occasionally when requesting images from the public taken during specific storm events. It is the opinion of the legal team that they "do not believe a disclaimer, alone, can be used to transfer a copyright holder's ownership interest to NOAA or to abandon the copyright interest to the public domain". Since then, we have removed the questionable language on the disclaimer page...."

P.1.3. The historical interpretation is inconsistent with what we can observe the NWS actually doing in practise on their websites.

P.1.3.1. An easy test of the historical interpretation is to examine photos on NWS websites where we have access to a direct statement of copyright ownership by the copyright owner themselves. We most commonly find this with images sourced to media outlets known to strictly and aggressively protect their IP, including Getty Images and the AP.

There is not a single known instance where the NWS has published such an image with an explicit copyright notice in its caption. Instead, they are generally captioned "Courtesy of..." or "Photo by..." exactly the same way that the NWS captions almost all third-party images.

I've collected some examples here, including a Getty Image published by the NWS with no caption at all:

A7. Examples of how third-party images known from external sources are credited on weather.gov

A7. Examples of how third-party images known from external sources are credited on weather.gov Example Page on weather.gov Image on weather.gov External source Creator Copyright and license Attribution by NWS Comments A7-1-1 https://www.weather.gov/safety/flood-states-ia (expand "The 2008 Flood" section) Image of semi-submerged traffic lights Getty Images Scott Olson, distributed by Getty Images Under copyright. "The Site is owned by Getty Images. Unless otherwise indicated, all of the content featured or displayed on the Site, including, but not limited to, text, graphics, data, photographic images, moving images, sound, illustrations, software, and the selection and arrangement thereof ("Getty Images Content"), is owned by Getty Images, its licensors, or its third-party image partners. All elements of the Site, including the Getty Images Content, are protected by copyright, trade dress, moral rights, trademark and other laws relating to the protection of intellectual property."[2] Photo is included twice: At top of page with no attribution at all in "The 2008 Flood" section: "Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images" A7-1-2 Image of flood-damaged bridge "Downtown Waterloo railroad bridge collapses", The Waterloo Courier June 11, 2008 (paywalled). Scan of print edition available here. Image syndicated to other media outlets, including sfgate.com and boston.com. Morgan Hawthorne, staff photographer for The Waterloo Courier, distributed by the Associated Press Under copyright. Image no longer appears to be distributed by AP. The Waterloo Courier's copyright policy states: "This Site and the content on the Site that we provide (“Our Content”) is owned by us and third party providers and is protected by U.S. and international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. This Site and Our Content may not be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, sold, leased, licensed, sublicensed, transmitted, or distributed without our written permission, except that you may download, display, and print one copy of Our Content on a single computer for your personal, non-commercial use only."[3] User:Rlandmann has made contact with The Waterloo Courier's licensing agent, who confirms that the image is not freely available, but is available to license. "Photo by The Waterloo Courier" The NWS has used this image in at least two other places: original context lost, credited in the image itself "AP Photo/The Waterloo Courier, Morgan Hawthorne" Central Iowa Floods of 2008, cover photo, credited on page 3: "AP Photo/The Waterloo Courier, Morgan Hawthorne" A7-2-1 https://www.weather.gov/gsp/gspPrepare_6 Image of devastated urban area Getty Images Joe Raedle, distributed by Getty Images Under copyright. "The Site is owned by Getty Images. Unless otherwise indicated, all of the content featured or displayed on the Site, including, but not limited to, text, graphics, data, photographic images, moving images, sound, illustrations, software, and the selection and arrangement thereof ("Getty Images Content"), is owned by Getty Images, its licensors, or its third-party image partners. All elements of the Site, including the Getty Images Content, are protected by copyright, trade dress, moral rights, trademark and other laws relating to the protection of intellectual property."[4] "Photo courtesy of Joe Raedle, Getty Images" A7-3-1 https://www.weather.gov/tsa/hydro_tadd Image of washed-away road Associated Press Dave Martin, distributed by Associated Press Under copyright. "Copyright 2009 AP. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed" "AP Photo Dave Martin" A7-4-1 https://www.weather.gov/lmk/snow_plow_game Image of a football "A foothold on history: 25 years later, Mark Henderson still remembered for role in Pats’ ’Snowplow Game’", Boston Herald November 17, 2018 (paywalled) John Wilcox Under copyright. "Intellectual Property Rights All information, data, and content displayed on, transmitted through or used in connection with MediaNews Group sites, including, but not limited to, news articles, reviews, directories, guides, text, photographs, images, illustrations, audio clips, video, html, source and object code, trademarks, logos and the like, as well as its selection and arrangement (together, the “Content”), is owned by MediaNews Group and its affiliated companies or the third party credited as the owner of the Content. All Content is provided for informational purposes only and you are solely responsible for verifying the accuracy, completeness, and applicability of all Content and for your use of any Content. You may use the Content online only, and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. If you operate a web site and wish to link to any of the sites owned and operated by MediaNews Group, you may do so provided you agree to cease such link upon request from MediaNews Group and that you do not state or imply any sponsorship of your site by MediaNews Group (for example, by using our stylized trademark or logo). No other use is permitted without prior written permission of MediaNews Group. The permitted use described in this paragraph is contingent on your compliance at all times with the Terms of Use. You may not, for example, republish any portion of the Content on any internet, intranet or extranet site or incorporate the Content in any database, compilation, archive or cache. You may not distribute any Content to others, whether or not for payment or other consideration, and you may not modify, copy, frame, cache, reproduce, sell, publish, transmit, display or otherwise use any portion of the Content."[5] "Photo credit: Boston Herald/John Wilcox" A7-5-1 https://www.weather.gov/lsx/PresidentsDay2021SnowEvent Image of traffic on Interstate in snow "Snow, bone-jarring cold descend on St. Louis as emergency workers struggle to respond", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 15, 2021 (paywalled) Colter Peterson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Under copyright. "Our Intellectual Property This Site and the content on the Site is owned by us and third party providers and is protected by U.S. and international copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws. This Site and the content may not be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed without our written permission, except that you may download, display, and print one copy of the materials presented on this Site on a single computer for your personal, non-commercial use only."[6] "Photo courtesy of Colter Peterson and the St. Louis Post Dispatch" A7-6-1 https://www.weather.gov/iwx/decade_weather_2010_2019 Image of semi-submerged police car "Record rainfall in Michiana leaves floods, damaged homes and a long cleanup", South Bend Tribune, August 17, 2016 Santiago Flores, South Bend Tribune Under copyright. "Rights and Restrictions Relating to Site Content Your Limited Right to Use Site Materials. This Site and all the materials available on the Site are the property of us and/or our affiliates or licensors, and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. The Site is provided solely for your personal noncommercial use. You may not use the Site or the materials available on the Site in a manner that constitutes an infringement of our rights or that has not been authorized by us. More specifically, unless explicitly authorized in these Terms of Service or by the owner of the materials, you may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, translate, sell, create derivative works, exploit, or distribute in any manner or medium (including by email or other electronic means) any material from the Site. You may, however, from time to time, download and/or print one copy of individual pages of the Site for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices."[7] "Photo Courtesy of South Bend Tribune" A7-7-1 https://www.weather.gov/bmx/event_04072014 Image of flooded road "Rainfall totals top 7 inches in metro Birmingham; central Alabama gets brunt of heavy rain", AL.com, April 7, 2014 (image 8/14 in carousel, click for details) Tamika Moore, AL.com Under copyright. "© 2024 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local." "Courtesy of al.com" A7-8-1 https://www.weather.gov/rlx/2023-July-28-Severe-Weather-Event Image of damage to regional medical center sign (image ratio distorted in page; open in own tab/window to see correct proportions) "Storms down trees, damage buildings", WSAZ3, July 29, 2023 anonymous, "WSAZ with permission" "Viewers sent us photos of the damage, which also included damage to a sign at Logan Regional Medical Center." Under copyright. "3. Intellectual Property Rights: All text, images, photographs, graphics, logos, trade, product or program names, titles, packaging, user interfaces, audio and/or video content and any other content provided on or through the Services by GLM, Stations, third-party licensors (including UGC), vendors and suppliers that provide internal support to our Services (collectively “Operational Service Providers”), and advertisers, sponsors or promotional partners (collectively, “Advertisers”), including the selection, coordination, and arrangement of any such content (collectively, “GLM Content”), are owned by or licensed to GLM, Stations, Advertisers, Operational Service Providers and/or our third-party licensors. GLM Content is protected under U.S. and/or international copyright, trademark, patent, or other relevant intellectual property laws. Nothing stated or implied on the Services confers on you any additional license or right under any copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right of GLM or any third party unless explicitly provided in this TOU. Unless such use is expressly prohibited by GLM, you may view, reproduce, transmit, link, cache GLM Content for your own personal and non-commercial use, including posting on your personal Facebook page or other personal social networking platforms, provided you do not delete, change or obscure any of the GLM Content (including any copyright, trademark or proprietary notices), and do not misrepresent that GLM Content is your own. You may not (and you may not permit or encourage anyone else to) make derivative works, publicly perform, reproduce, distribute, transmit or link to GLM Content in or on any other third party website, digital service or via any vehicle in any manner that is likely or intended to cause confusion about the owner or origin of GLM Content, or is misleading, disparaging, harmful, or a detriment to GLM in our sole discretion. Except where permitted by law or expressly authorized by GLM, GLM Content may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, linked, cached or otherwise used for any commercial purposes unless you have the prior written permission of GLM. You may only use our Services and our GLM Content as expressly permitted in this TOU and for no other purpose."[8] (emphasis User:Rlandmann) "Photo Credit: WSAZ-TV" A7-9-1 https://www.weather.gov/jkl/20200412_nontstormwind Collage of storm damage images "Damage reported in Pikeville following storms Sunday night", WYMT, April 13, 2020 WYMT Under copyright. "3. Intellectual Property Rights: All text, images, photographs, graphics, logos, trade, product or program names, titles, packaging, user interfaces, audio and/or video content and any other content provided on or through the Services by GLM, Stations, third-party licensors (including UGC), vendors and suppliers that provide internal support to our Services (collectively “Operational Service Providers”), and advertisers, sponsors or promotional partners (collectively, “Advertisers”), including the selection, coordination, and arrangement of any such content (collectively, “GLM Content”), are owned by or licensed to GLM, Stations, Advertisers, Operational Service Providers and/or our third-party licensors. GLM Content is protected under U.S. and/or international copyright, trademark, patent, or other relevant intellectual property laws. Nothing stated or implied on the Services confers on you any additional license or right under any copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right of GLM or any third party unless explicitly provided in this TOU. Unless such use is expressly prohibited by GLM, you may view, reproduce, transmit, link, cache GLM Content for your own personal and non-commercial use, including posting on your personal Facebook page or other personal social networking platforms, provided you do not delete, change or obscure any of the GLM Content (including any copyright, trademark or proprietary notices), and do not misrepresent that GLM Content is your own. You may not (and you may not permit or encourage anyone else to) make derivative works, publicly perform, reproduce, distribute, transmit or link to GLM Content in or on any other third party website, digital service or via any vehicle in any manner that is likely or intended to cause confusion about the owner or origin of GLM Content, or is misleading, disparaging, harmful, or a detriment to GLM in our sole discretion. Except where permitted by law or expressly authorized by GLM, GLM Content may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, linked, cached or otherwise used for any commercial purposes unless you have the prior written permission of GLM. You may only use our Services and our GLM Content as expressly permitted in this TOU and for no other purpose."[9] "Courtesy WYMT" Collage on NWS page is taken directly from WYMT A7-10-1 https://www.weather.gov/cae/Feb2014SnowIceEvent.html Image of snow-covered landscape "Augusta hardest hit statewide for power outages", The Augusta Chronicle, February 13, 2014 Augusta Chronicle Under copyright. "Your Limited Right to Use Site Materials. This Site and all the materials available on the Site are the property of us and/or our affiliates or licensors, and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. The Site is provided solely for your personal noncommercial use. You may not use the Site or the materials available on the Site in a manner that constitutes an infringement of our rights or that has not been authorized by us. More specifically, unless explicitly authorized in these Terms of Service or by the owner of the materials, you may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, translate, sell, create derivative works, exploit, or distribute in any manner or medium (including by email or other electronic means) any material from the Site. You may, however, from time to time, download and/or print one copy of individual pages of the Site for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices."[10] "Courtesy Augusta Chronicle"

P.1.3.2. The converse test is also helpful. The NWS publishes images from many different sources on its websites. By far, the most common attributions they use are "Courtesy of..." and "Photo by..." These attributions are used for all kinds of images, ranging from those where we have access to a direct statement of copyright ownership from the copyright owner (as at P.1.3.1 above) through to images very clearly in the public domain (such as those produced by NWS offices or other US Government agencies).

Here's a summary, with links to examples:

A20. Survey of image attributions on NWS websites across different copyright and licensing scenarios

A7. Examples of how third-party images known from external sources are credited on weather.gov Example Page on weather.gov Image on weather.gov External source Creator Copyright and license Attribution by NWS Comments A7-1-1 https://www.weather.gov/safety/flood-states-ia (expand "The 2008 Flood" section) Image of semi-submerged traffic lights Getty Images Scott Olson, distributed by Getty Images Under copyright. "The Site is owned by Getty Images. Unless otherwise indicated, all of the content featured or displayed on the Site, including, but not limited to, text, graphics, data, photographic images, moving images, sound, illustrations, software, and the selection and arrangement thereof ("Getty Images Content"), is owned by Getty Images, its licensors, or its third-party image partners. All elements of the Site, including the Getty Images Content, are protected by copyright, trade dress, moral rights, trademark and other laws relating to the protection of intellectual property."[11] Photo is included twice: At top of page with no attribution at all in "The 2008 Flood" section: "Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images" A7-1-2 Image of flood-damaged bridge "Downtown Waterloo railroad bridge collapses", The Waterloo Courier June 11, 2008 (paywalled). Scan of print edition available here. Image syndicated to other media outlets, including sfgate.com and boston.com. Morgan Hawthorne, staff photographer for The Waterloo Courier, distributed by the Associated Press Under copyright. Image no longer appears to be distributed by AP. The Waterloo Courier's copyright policy states: "This Site and the content on the Site that we provide (“Our Content”) is owned by us and third party providers and is protected by U.S. and international copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. This Site and Our Content may not be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, sold, leased, licensed, sublicensed, transmitted, or distributed without our written permission, except that you may download, display, and print one copy of Our Content on a single computer for your personal, non-commercial use only."[12] User:Rlandmann has made contact with The Waterloo Courier's licensing agent, who confirms that the image is not freely available, but is available to license. "Photo by The Waterloo Courier" The NWS has used this image in at least two other places: original context lost, credited in the image itself "AP Photo/The Waterloo Courier, Morgan Hawthorne" Central Iowa Floods of 2008, cover photo, credited on page 3: "AP Photo/The Waterloo Courier, Morgan Hawthorne" A7-2-1 https://www.weather.gov/gsp/gspPrepare_6 Image of devastated urban area Getty Images Joe Raedle, distributed by Getty Images Under copyright. "The Site is owned by Getty Images. Unless otherwise indicated, all of the content featured or displayed on the Site, including, but not limited to, text, graphics, data, photographic images, moving images, sound, illustrations, software, and the selection and arrangement thereof ("Getty Images Content"), is owned by Getty Images, its licensors, or its third-party image partners. All elements of the Site, including the Getty Images Content, are protected by copyright, trade dress, moral rights, trademark and other laws relating to the protection of intellectual property."[13] "Photo courtesy of Joe Raedle, Getty Images" A7-3-1 https://www.weather.gov/tsa/hydro_tadd Image of washed-away road Associated Press Dave Martin, distributed by Associated Press Under copyright. "Copyright 2009 AP. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed" "AP Photo Dave Martin" A7-4-1 https://www.weather.gov/lmk/snow_plow_game Image of a football "A foothold on history: 25 years later, Mark Henderson still remembered for role in Pats’ ’Snowplow Game’", Boston Herald November 17, 2018 (paywalled) John Wilcox Under copyright. "Intellectual Property Rights All information, data, and content displayed on, transmitted through or used in connection with MediaNews Group sites, including, but not limited to, news articles, reviews, directories, guides, text, photographs, images, illustrations, audio clips, video, html, source and object code, trademarks, logos and the like, as well as its selection and arrangement (together, the “Content”), is owned by MediaNews Group and its affiliated companies or the third party credited as the owner of the Content. All Content is provided for informational purposes only and you are solely responsible for verifying the accuracy, completeness, and applicability of all Content and for your use of any Content. You may use the Content online only, and solely for your personal, non-commercial use. If you operate a web site and wish to link to any of the sites owned and operated by MediaNews Group, you may do so provided you agree to cease such link upon request from MediaNews Group and that you do not state or imply any sponsorship of your site by MediaNews Group (for example, by using our stylized trademark or logo). No other use is permitted without prior written permission of MediaNews Group. The permitted use described in this paragraph is contingent on your compliance at all times with the Terms of Use. You may not, for example, republish any portion of the Content on any internet, intranet or extranet site or incorporate the Content in any database, compilation, archive or cache. You may not distribute any Content to others, whether or not for payment or other consideration, and you may not modify, copy, frame, cache, reproduce, sell, publish, transmit, display or otherwise use any portion of the Content."[14] "Photo credit: Boston Herald/John Wilcox" A7-5-1 https://www.weather.gov/lsx/PresidentsDay2021SnowEvent Image of traffic on Interstate in snow "Snow, bone-jarring cold descend on St. Louis as emergency workers struggle to respond", St. Louis Post-Dispatch, February 15, 2021 (paywalled) Colter Peterson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch Under copyright. "Our Intellectual Property This Site and the content on the Site is owned by us and third party providers and is protected by U.S. and international copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws. This Site and the content may not be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, transmitted, or distributed without our written permission, except that you may download, display, and print one copy of the materials presented on this Site on a single computer for your personal, non-commercial use only."[15] "Photo courtesy of Colter Peterson and the St. Louis Post Dispatch" A7-6-1 https://www.weather.gov/iwx/decade_weather_2010_2019 Image of semi-submerged police car "Record rainfall in Michiana leaves floods, damaged homes and a long cleanup", South Bend Tribune, August 17, 2016 Santiago Flores, South Bend Tribune Under copyright. "Rights and Restrictions Relating to Site Content Your Limited Right to Use Site Materials. This Site and all the materials available on the Site are the property of us and/or our affiliates or licensors, and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. The Site is provided solely for your personal noncommercial use. You may not use the Site or the materials available on the Site in a manner that constitutes an infringement of our rights or that has not been authorized by us. More specifically, unless explicitly authorized in these Terms of Service or by the owner of the materials, you may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, translate, sell, create derivative works, exploit, or distribute in any manner or medium (including by email or other electronic means) any material from the Site. You may, however, from time to time, download and/or print one copy of individual pages of the Site for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices."[16] "Photo Courtesy of South Bend Tribune" A7-7-1 https://www.weather.gov/bmx/event_04072014 Image of flooded road "Rainfall totals top 7 inches in metro Birmingham; central Alabama gets brunt of heavy rain", AL.com, April 7, 2014 (image 8/14 in carousel, click for details) Tamika Moore, AL.com Under copyright. "© 2024 Advance Local Media LLC. All rights reserved (About Us). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Advance Local." "Courtesy of al.com" A7-8-1 https://www.weather.gov/rlx/2023-July-28-Severe-Weather-Event Image of damage to regional medical center sign (image ratio distorted in page; open in own tab/window to see correct proportions) "Storms down trees, damage buildings", WSAZ3, July 29, 2023 anonymous, "WSAZ with permission" "Viewers sent us photos of the damage, which also included damage to a sign at Logan Regional Medical Center." Under copyright. "3. Intellectual Property Rights: All text, images, photographs, graphics, logos, trade, product or program names, titles, packaging, user interfaces, audio and/or video content and any other content provided on or through the Services by GLM, Stations, third-party licensors (including UGC), vendors and suppliers that provide internal support to our Services (collectively “Operational Service Providers”), and advertisers, sponsors or promotional partners (collectively, “Advertisers”), including the selection, coordination, and arrangement of any such content (collectively, “GLM Content”), are owned by or licensed to GLM, Stations, Advertisers, Operational Service Providers and/or our third-party licensors. GLM Content is protected under U.S. and/or international copyright, trademark, patent, or other relevant intellectual property laws. Nothing stated or implied on the Services confers on you any additional license or right under any copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right of GLM or any third party unless explicitly provided in this TOU. Unless such use is expressly prohibited by GLM, you may view, reproduce, transmit, link, cache GLM Content for your own personal and non-commercial use, including posting on your personal Facebook page or other personal social networking platforms, provided you do not delete, change or obscure any of the GLM Content (including any copyright, trademark or proprietary notices), and do not misrepresent that GLM Content is your own. You may not (and you may not permit or encourage anyone else to) make derivative works, publicly perform, reproduce, distribute, transmit or link to GLM Content in or on any other third party website, digital service or via any vehicle in any manner that is likely or intended to cause confusion about the owner or origin of GLM Content, or is misleading, disparaging, harmful, or a detriment to GLM in our sole discretion. Except where permitted by law or expressly authorized by GLM, GLM Content may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, linked, cached or otherwise used for any commercial purposes unless you have the prior written permission of GLM. You may only use our Services and our GLM Content as expressly permitted in this TOU and for no other purpose."[17] (emphasis User:Rlandmann) "Photo Credit: WSAZ-TV" A7-9-1 https://www.weather.gov/jkl/20200412_nontstormwind Collage of storm damage images "Damage reported in Pikeville following storms Sunday night", WYMT, April 13, 2020 WYMT Under copyright. "3. 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Nothing stated or implied on the Services confers on you any additional license or right under any copyright, trademark, patent or other intellectual property right of GLM or any third party unless explicitly provided in this TOU. Unless such use is expressly prohibited by GLM, you may view, reproduce, transmit, link, cache GLM Content for your own personal and non-commercial use, including posting on your personal Facebook page or other personal social networking platforms, provided you do not delete, change or obscure any of the GLM Content (including any copyright, trademark or proprietary notices), and do not misrepresent that GLM Content is your own. You may not (and you may not permit or encourage anyone else to) make derivative works, publicly perform, reproduce, distribute, transmit or link to GLM Content in or on any other third party website, digital service or via any vehicle in any manner that is likely or intended to cause confusion about the owner or origin of GLM Content, or is misleading, disparaging, harmful, or a detriment to GLM in our sole discretion. Except where permitted by law or expressly authorized by GLM, GLM Content may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, linked, cached or otherwise used for any commercial purposes unless you have the prior written permission of GLM. You may only use our Services and our GLM Content as expressly permitted in this TOU and for no other purpose."[18] "Courtesy WYMT" Collage on NWS page is taken directly from WYMT A7-10-1 https://www.weather.gov/cae/Feb2014SnowIceEvent.html Image of snow-covered landscape "Augusta hardest hit statewide for power outages", The Augusta Chronicle, February 13, 2014 Augusta Chronicle Under copyright. "Your Limited Right to Use Site Materials. This Site and all the materials available on the Site are the property of us and/or our affiliates or licensors, and are protected by copyright, trademark, and other intellectual property laws. The Site is provided solely for your personal noncommercial use. You may not use the Site or the materials available on the Site in a manner that constitutes an infringement of our rights or that has not been authorized by us. More specifically, unless explicitly authorized in these Terms of Service or by the owner of the materials, you may not modify, copy, reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, translate, sell, create derivative works, exploit, or distribute in any manner or medium (including by email or other electronic means) any material from the Site. You may, however, from time to time, download and/or print one copy of individual pages of the Site for your personal, non-commercial use, provided that you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices."[19] "Courtesy Augusta Chronicle"

P.1.3.3. Logically, there are a limited number of scenarios that fit observable reality:

P.1.3.3.1. The historical interpretation of the NWS general disclaimer is correct and Getty Images, the AP, and various other media agencies have been uncharacteristically generous (or incompetent) and released all these images (and many more) into the public domain, while still offering them for license elsewhere.

P.1.3.3.2. The historical interpretation of the NWS general disclaimer is correct and NWS website maintainers are universally incompetent and get this wrong every single time they publish such an image.

P.1.3.3.3. The historical interpretation of the NWS general disclaimer is incorrect, and absence of an explicit copyright statement in a caption or embedded in an image is does not amount to an assertion by the NWS that an image is in the public domain.

P.1.3.4. More generally, the lack of consistency summarized at A.20 suggests two scenarios:

P.1.3.4.1. The historical interpretation of the NWS general disclaimer is correct, but NWS website maintainers apply it so inconsistently and haphazardly that whatever the intention of the disclaimer, it is such an unreliable guide to the copyright status of an image that the general disclaimer cannot provide evidence of permission.

P.1.3.4.2. The historical interpretation of the NWS general disclaimer is incorrect, the style of attributions (or lack of attributions) are not generally assertions by the NWS about the copyright status of third-party images, and again cannot provide evidence of permission.

Q.2. Are fourth-party image attributions evidence of permission?

Sometimes, images published on NWS websites are also found on various reliable sources (mostly media outlets), under a variety of attributions.

In some recent DR discussions, a line of reasoning has emerged that if such outlets credit the NWS or NOAA as the source of the image, this amounts to the outlet asserting that the image is in the public domain. For example:

A22. Examples of reliable sources crediting images sourced from the NWS to the NWS

A.22 Examples of reliable sources crediting images sourced from NWS to NWS Number NWS page Image NWS attribution Media outlet Media outlet attributions A22-1 (archived; previously, the first image on the page) now found on NOAA Flickr stream under a CC-BY license Fred Stewart WYSO National Weather Service The Enquirer (cincinnatti.com) Fred Stewart, National Weather Service (NB: No other source suggests or claims that Stewart worked for the NWS) Times of India National Weather Service WKBN National Weather Service Northern Kentucky Tribune National Weather Service NBC4i National Weather Service/Wilmington, Oh. WVXU National Weather Service Houston Chronicle National Weather Service

The problem with this reasoning is that:

P.2.1. Such attributions demonstrably fail to credit the creator of the image (even when this information is available at the source). They can be considered a reliable source only for where the journalist or editor found the image, nothing more (and do not actually purport to provide more than this).

Q.3. Is the footer on some NWS pages a free license for any images on that page?

Many NWS pages[20] include the following footer text:

A21. Footer found on many weather.gov web pages

"Media use of NWS Web News Stories is encouraged!
Please acknowledge the NWS as the source of any news information accessed from this site."

In some recent DR discussions, a line of reasoning has emerged that these words amount to an assertion by the NWS that all the content on the page, including any images published on it, is in the public domain.

Other than "News information" seeming to be an odd way to refer to images, the main problem with this line of reasoning is:

P.3.1. This footer does not appear to invite reuse by anyone other than "media" outlets, or implictly, for any purpose other than news reporting. It certainly does not state or imply that such content is in the public domain per se, only that media outlets have permission to use it (and are even encouraged to do so).

Discussion

Q.1. Is the NWS general disclaimer evidence of permission?

•  Oppose For all the reasons I documented, but most particularly, because this claim doesn't even stack up with observable evidence (P.1.3.4.) --Rlandmann (talk) 11:00, 26 August 2024 (UTC)
•  Support The general disclaimer seems to be worded appropriately. For the clause of “specifically annotated otherwise”, NWS either allows the user to add a copyright “©” watermark to the image {as seen in this image, hosted on this NWS webpage} or by directly adding a copyright statement using “©” {as seen on this NWS webpage: difference between the “Tornado Photos” and “Damage” tabs}. That disclaimer is linked at the bottom of all NWS webpages. To me, “specifically annotated otherwise” indicates a direct copyright (©) statement or watermark. For that reason, I believe any of the instances of problematic images (i.e. something like Commons:Deletion requests/File:MayfieldKentuckyEF32016.PNG) are one-off instances. The whole disclaimer shouldn’t be discredited or dismissed over a few images (we have found only 1 or 2 actual confirmed instances of this as well) which bluntly most likely slipped through the crack, which we ourselves on the Commons have had happen before (i.e. with a relevant example: Commons:Deletion requests/File:Tor jreed 091510 A07.jpg). WeatherWriter (talk) 11:53, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

   Strong oppose – The NWS’s own legal team has even said that this is unreliable for third party stuff. 🌀 Hurricane Clyde 🌀 (talk) 15:44, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

  That second image you mentioned approaches copyvio territory rather than just precautionary principle because it actually has a ©️ watermark on it. 🌀 Hurricane Clyde 🌀 (talk) 16:02, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

Q.2. Are fourth-party image attributions evidence of permission?

•  Oppose These types of sources only say where the image was found, not who owns it. Attempting to use Wikipedia's "Reliable Sources" policy to justify the contrary is beyond just a stretch. --Rlandmann (talk) 11:00, 26 August 2024 (UTC)
•  Support Given the NWS general disclaimer (see my explanation from Q.1 above), it seems clear that RS media outlets are using it. I believe any of the instances of problematic images (i.e. something like Commons:Deletion requests/File:MayfieldKentuckyEF32016.PNG) are one-off instances. To me, the use of RS media attributing NWS as the source seems to be a huge step in proving the PD-nature of images, given they all pass respective editor checks. One outlet claiming a photograph is PD based on NWS would be one thing. But when multiple are saying it, despite us knowing it “isn’t NWS”, that to me, is clearly supporting evidence of the General Disclaimer being valid. WeatherWriter (talk) 11:53, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

   Weak oppose – It is kinda case dependent. Such images should be more closely looked at. But as a whole; I think such attribution is unreliable. But again, such images should be looked at on a case-by-case basis. 🌀 Hurricane Clyde 🌀 (talk) 15:47, 26 August 2024 (UTC)

Q.3. Is the footer on some NWS pages a free license for any images on that page?

•  Oppose This isn't even consistent with what the footer itself says! At best, it's permission to use under very limited conditions. --Rlandmann (talk) 11:00, 26 August 2024 (UTC)
•  Support This especially is a huge thing. If this is compounded with the general disclaimer (see my Support reasoning in Q.1) and/or any media usage citing NWS (see my Support reasoning in Q.2), then it seems very clear the photograph would be in the PD. WeatherWriter (talk) 11:53, 26 August 2024 (UTC)
•  ABSOLUTELY POSITIVELY NOT! – as @Rlandmann points out; this isn’t even consistent with what the footer itself says! The footer only implies permission to the news media. 🌀 Hurricane Clyde 🌀 (talk) 15:49, 26 August 2024 (UTC)