File:Missoula Montana-Higgins Street Bridge-1999 09 27.jpg

Copyright Information

You may use this image for any purpose, including commercial. As the owner I have explicitly placed it in the public domain. If you do use it, please let me know. I enjoy seeing what others have created with these photos.

Use it for whatever you want. Use it all. Sell it. Mangle it. Whatever you want. Please. But it would be polite to let me know so I can at least enjoy whatever creative use you're putting it to. If you'd like you can put a link to it in the comments below.

This doesn't mean that you can take the material and then copyright it yourself. It's in the public domain and that's where I want it to stay.

If you are shown in a photo, or feel a photo violates your copyrights, and object to it being available on the Internet, please contact me and the image will be removed (I'll need a way to contact you).

If you want to use a picture on your own web page YOU MUST save the picture to your own server.

Here's the reason I'm putting this information in the public domain:

When I look around at the way our entire culture has become trademarked and copyrighted, I become very depressed. What is this doing to creativity? What is this doing to innovation? I want the stuff I create to inspire others and provide them with tools for their own expression.

I also want others to embrace the idea of placing their work in the public domain. If you currently have copyrighted material, ask yourself this: 1) What do you gain by establishing and enforcing your copyright? 2) What might you gain by opening that material to others who could do something useful or beautiful with it? I think I gain quite a bit by seeing my work reused by others. I've been blown away by some of the creative things people have done with my pictures. Contrast that with the stress, anger, and bad will that was generated by threats I used to make to people who "stole" my pictures or designs.

If we use copyright as it was intended - To encourage people to make their art public - then great. But it seems like it's turned into something very different. These days copyright, as used by most people, only encourages and reenforces greed.

If you're an artist or writer who makes a living by distributing your work publicly, then you have a good reason to maintain copyrights on it. But even then you might want to think about placing work that isn't generating revenue in the public domain. If you never intend to make money on it then why not open it up for anyone to use?

Just think about it. Don't the corporate mindset of litigious control drive your motivations.

Source: http://pdphoto.org/Copyright.php?lid=2