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Participant
August 31, 2023
Question

Cthulhu Copyright Question

I have a question about characters / works in the public domain. Can you post illustrations of Cthulhu or Jane Austen characters or Moby Dick? All of these are in the public domain not under any sort of copyright, but where does this fall under Adobe's stock image terms? 

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16 replies

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 1, 2023

Moby Dick (aka The Whale)  is an 1851 fiction novel by Herman Melville.

Jane Austin was an author who died over 100 years ago.  The following image of Jane Austin is in Public Domain.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jane_Austen.jpg

 

Stock prohibits using works in Public Domain.  Everything you submit to Stock must be YOUR OWN work, not the work or partial work of other artists.  See below.

https://helpx.adobe.com/stock/contributor/help/submission-guidelines.html

 

Hope that helps.

 

 

 

 

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Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
daniellei4510
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 1, 2023

Makes perfect sense. I have been commenting under the impression--I think correctly so--that he was using AI. But incorporating the images you mentioned IN to and AI asset would certainly be a no-no.

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Adobe Community Expert | I have miles to go before I sleep, but I'm all done on this end.
RALPH_L
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 1, 2023

Adobes policy on images does not mention public domain. It states that any resembalance to real persons require a model release. For me, that means even for public domain.

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Jill_C
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 1, 2023

Not sure about that... there are many images of Abraham Lincoln, for instance, and I doubt that contributors are able to get a signed model release from him,,.

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Jill C., Forum Volunteer
RALPH_L
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 1, 2023

Five years ago, @MatHayword stated in a post that a model release is required for persons who have not been deceased for atleast 75 years. 

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daniellei4510
Community Expert
Community Expert
September 1, 2023

In theory, you probably can. The missing variable would be if the moderator who reviews your work is up to speed on what is and is not in the public domain. 

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Adobe Community Expert | I have miles to go before I sleep, but I'm all done on this end.