FAQ

What is copyright?
The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, U.S. Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyright material.

“Copyright” is a form of protection provided to the authors of “original works of authorship,” both published and unpublished, that are fixed in a tangible form of expression.

Copyrightable works include literary works, computer programs, visual art works (i.e. pictorial, graphic and sculptural works), performing art works, sound recordings, serials and periodicals, and mask works.

All images, text, audio, video and other materials on this Web site (collectively, the "Content") are protected under applicable copyright, trademark and other proprietary rights. Technologies and processes embodied in and used by this site may be covered by one or more U.S. patents and patents pending.

Accordingly, the copying, downloading, displaying, posting, redistribution, use, or publication by you of any Content or any part of the site is strictly prohibited, except for use by Iowa Department of Transportation (Iowa DOT) employees in the course of agency business and by other persons for private, educational, research, and non-commercial use.

What is “fair use” of copyrighted material?
“Fair Use” is a limitation on the exclusive rights of copyright holders. The U.S. Copyright Act (Title 17, U.S. Code) gives copyright holders the exclusive right to reproduce works for a limited time period. Fair use is a limitation on this right. A use that is considered "fair" does not infringe copyright, even if it involves one of the exclusive rights of copyright holders.

Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted works. Fair use also allows consumers to make a copy of part or all of a copyrighted work, even where the copyright holder has not given permission or objects to your use of the work. In particular, fair use applies to “socially important endeavors” such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research.

Under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act, four factors are used to determine whether a specific action is to be considered a "fair use." These factors are as follows:

• The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes.
• The nature of the copyrighted work.
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Is the informational content associated with the images also protected by copyright?
The data associated with the images is not covered under the provisions of Fair Use. You must request permission from the copyright holder before using it. "Data" includes locations, dates, and any notes or other text about the photo that were provided when it was contributed and identified.

This means that you may not collect text information from the DOT's database in order to make text or photos available on your own Web site without permission. It is, however, permissible to use summary information to generate links such as "Click here to see all photos of Vintage Bicycles in Iowa DOT Photos.”

What are robots and other download programs?
Web robots, sometimes referred to as Web Wanderers, Web Crawlers, Gatherers or Spiders, are programs that visit a Web site for the purpose of culling E-mail addresses or downloading portions of or an entire Web site.

Some robots serve a valuable purpose, like those created by the major search engines that send their robots to a site to index your pages and include the pages in their databases. Other robots violate copyright laws, assist people in spamming, invade privacy, and consume enormous amounts of bandwidth. Robots that use multiple connections to read data overwhelm Web servers, forcing them to respond to robot requests to the detriment of human site visitors.

Therefore, the Iowa DOT does not permit robots (not associated with major search engines) to harvest images and data from our Web site.

What does “circa” mean?
“Circa” means “approximately,” used to show an approximate date. Circa 1910 = approximately 1910. The term is used when a specific date isn't known.

How is the information cataloged?
Most of the cataloging is considered “minimal level,” because information is often limited to what is provided with the photo rather than what could be learned by fully researching the image. Since the original information accompanying a photo can be inaccurate, the DOT is always glad to hear from researchers who have additional or better information.