Public Domain images marked as "editorial use" only

[P.M.B]

Upon doing a search for "secretary of state" on Adobe Stock I was presented with a set of three us government seals for president, vice president & secretary of state.  The image is marked as "editorial use only".   While it is totally legal to sell public domain images (although ethically questionalble)

why are these images marked as editorial use only?

Just curious

[Abambo]

Hi Gutterfish,

Logos are refused when submitted without the "Editorial use only" flag.

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@P.M.B wrote:

While it is totally legal to sell public domain images (although ethically questionalble)

why are these images marked as editorial use only?

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It's only legal if you recreated the logo, at least on Adobe stock, as the creator asserts to have all rights on the file:

Content ownership

Copyright: You must own or control all the rights to files you submit to Adobe Stock. Don’t submit files that don’t belong to you (for example, photos that your spouse took) or that incorporate items that are not yours, such as content found on the internet including sites that allow free downloads. 

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

If I needed such a file, my first look would be Wikipedia… Just a thought.

[P.M.B]

If I needed such a file, my first look would be Wikipedia… Just a thought.

By @Abambo

For sure.  I was searching for something else and just happened to see those.  Whoever uploaded those logos did quite a job.  They're indistinguishable from the actual seals.  I'm not sure how one could actually tell if their recreations or not.

[Nancy OShea · Accepted solution]

Official U.S. Gov't seals, badges and logos cannot be used for commercical purposes  -- i.e. brochures, posters, pamphlets, print & digital ads, product packaging & merchandise, etc...  It is however appropriate to use them for editorial purposes in news articles, blogs and reporting.

18 U.S. Code § 713

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/713