A couple of months ago, I saw a very strange caption for a photo of Vice President Kamala Harris: “Kamala Harris stock photo available under a royalty-free license.” I suppose that’s technically correct. But is it necessary?
Any time we even look at the Daily Kos Image Library, even if not intending to upload any new images, we see the message “Before you upload, please make sure you own this image or have a license to use it publicly.”
But even with that admonition, I have seen here on Daily Kos three or four photos with very obvious Getty Images watermarks. It’s not often, but it really sticks out like a sore thumb if the article makes it on the Recommended list. I’ve also seen horribly pixelated pictures, but that’s another issue, I suppose.
This is what makes a misuse of an official photo frustrating. A year ago, I wrote about how prolific criminal and terrorist leader Donald Trump misused a photo by Pete Souza on the so-called Truth Social, mischaracterizing the image of then-Vice President Biden and an Obama advisor from ten years prior as proof of a plot being hatched by now-President Biden and a Department of Justice official against then not yet Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Souza quite rightfully demanded an apology from Trump. The mandate to apologize is purely moral, not legal. Of course Trump has quite enough trouble complying with legal requirements, so we don’t think Trump will apologize to Souza any time soon. Or ever.
Reasonably, we expect a lot more uprightness from Daily Kos staffers and community members than we do from Donald Trump. So we expect that you won’t use photos that you don’t have permission to use, and that you won’t miscaption photos to support half-baked conspiracy theories.
Okay, then, but what about when you’re writing about President Biden or Vice President Harris or any other government official? Maybe those persons have been photographed by government photographers. The work of government photographers done in the course of their duties is public domain.
Lawrence Jackson is the official photographer for Vice President Kamala Harris. Any photo that Lawrence Jackson takes of Vice President Kamala Harris, her aides, other American government officials (including President Biden), foreign dignitaries Harris meets with, members of the general public talking to Harris, etc., those are all public domain images.
The photo I put at the top, that’s by Lawrence Jackson and he took that photo during the course of his duties as official photographer for the vice president. Similarly, the photo of then-President Obama and then-Vice President Biden at right is public domain by Pete Souza, the official White House photographer for President Obama.
By the way, so many of Souza’s photos show a real friendship between Obama and Biden. Hypothetically, if Romney had won in 2012, then-President Obama would have expected then-Vice President Biden to preside over the vote count as per usual. Obama would not have thought to ask Biden to do anything else other than his duty.
Now, when Lawrence Jackson goes home and takes photos of his own family, that’s not public domain, as it’s not during the course of his duties as official photographer for the vice president.
There are lots of other government photographers besides the official White House photographer and the official vice-presidential photographers. For example, a lance corporal takes a picture of the secretary of the Navy in a war zone for the unit’s newsletter, that’s public domain also.
Do keep in mind that there are provisions even for the use of public domain photos by government photographers. The metadata for the Jackson photo of Harris includes the following paragraph:
This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House. Original public domain image from [Flickr].
So, for example, you’re writing an article about the vice president’s most recent speech, it’s okay to use a picture by Lawrence Jackson for your article. You can even upload it yourself if it’s not already in the Daily Kos image library.
To give an example of a disapproved use, imagine that you run a restaurant and you use a photo of the vice president in an advertisement for your restaurant to imply that she eats at your restaurant and endorses your restaurant. That would be wrong.
As for the process for getting Getty Images into Daily Kos properly, that’s work for Daily Kos staffers. If you’re a community member rather than a staffer, you should not be uploading anything from Getty Images to Daily Kos, even if you have a personal license for Getty Images. The terms for your personal license likely differ from the license Daily Kos pays for.
If you’re ever unsure, look at the metadata. And if you’re still unsure after that, don’t use it. At least for the president and vice president, there likely are already plenty of suitable images in the Daily Kos image library.