Copyright Information

The images in the USC-SIPI image database are provided for research purposes. Most of the material was scanned many years ago in our reseach group from a variety of sources. Over the last thirty years or so the images have also been published numerous times in research related publications such as books, journal articles, conference proceedings, dissertations, theses, etc.

USC-SIPI does not hold the copyright status on many of the images in the database. The copyright status of many images is completely unknown since information on the source of the image has long been lost. The copyright status of the images, as best as we can figure it out, is summarized below.

We often receive request from authors to sign forms granting them and their publishers the right to use the images. In most cases we are not in a position to grant such permission since we do not own the copyrights of the material. While we are not aware of any copyright issues that have come up as a result of using these images for research purposes, including publishing them in research related media, we can't guarantee that problems will not occur. If the origin of an image indicates that the image was created at USC, either by scanning a picture we photographed or computer generated, the image may be freely used for any research purpose.

If you plan to use in publications images where USC-SIPI does not own the copyright, please be aware that we will not be able to provide any documents granting permission for their use, even if you acquired the image from our web site. We strongly advise that you discuss this matter with your publisher before committing to using any of the images in a publication.

Volume 1: Textures
	1.1, 1.2, 1.3	The Brodatz textures are scans of photos purchased from the author. The copyright is probably retained by the author.
	1.4, 1.5	Scans of photos taken by a USC graduate student. Free to use.
	Mosaics	USC-SIPI asssembled the mosaics but they are collections of Brodatz textures so the copyright status is unclear.
Volume 2: Aerials
	2.1, 2.2, 3.2	These were scanned from high altitude aerial photos purchased by USC-SIPI. Source of photos is unknown. Copyright probably belongs to USC-SIPI and these should be considered free to use.
	wash-ir	This image was scanned for an academic customer who agreed to leave a copy of the data with us for use in our database. Copyright status is unknown, but probably safe to use.
Volume 3: Miscellaneos
	4.1.01, 4.1.02	Scans of an NTSC test picture possibly from Kodak. Copyright probably owned by Kodak.
	4.1.03	Believed to be from Bell Labs, copyright status unknown.
	4.1.07, 4.1.08	Picture of jelly beans taken at USC. Free to use.
	4.2.03	Scan from a magazine picture. Copyright belongs to original publisher or photographer.
	Others in group 4, 5 and 7, boat.512, house	Sources of these are unknown and copyright status is also unknown
	gray21.512, ruler.512	Test patterns constructed at USC-SIPI. Free to use.
Volume 4: Sequences
	6.1, 6.2, 6.3	Source of these is unknown and so is the copyright status.
	motion	Scans of photos taken by a USC graduate student. Free to use.