MicrostockGroup

This maybe be off the wall but I want to make a composite photo piece and I need a photo of a portion of the Statute of Liberty. Is there a public-domain or whatever stockpile I can use and is it it ok to use it as part of my image?
The Statute will only be a PART of the final image...
Any help of this idea?

Also I always see images in stock of the planet earth... I doubt people are making these themselves... Where do these come from? 

Which associates are those? Pls define? Also credits of what, where?
Thanks

This is where the gray area starts.

While you may download free images for commercial needs like for an advertisement, you're going to lean yourself farther out of the window by using a free image to incorporate it into a composition that you are going to sell as your own.

Considering that the entire image won't be "yours", you might get away with it as it will most likely stay undiscovered by the original copyright holder unless you get the owner's consent to do so. I wouldn't give consent. Even on the few images I uploaded for free a long time ago at sxc.hu

Furthermore Shutterstock contributor terms prohibit this behavior where it states:


If you ever get caught with that at SS, you're out.

I'm sure other agencies won't like to see this either.

NASA is the source. It has to be mentioned in the image description IF the agency accepts the image.

However, I doubt that NASA has public domain images of the statue of liberty high-res enough and noise-free enough for stock...

Pretty simple answer.

"Many NASA images and most film and video footage are in the public domain can be used for advertising purposes."

But you can't use images of any NASA logo, or astronauts without permission.

Go read the link, it's interesting. Just pointing out that it's pretty black and white, not grey. Most NASA images are free to be used in your stock compositions. The agency may not accept them, but it's legal.