I've been building up my collection of photographs of the main government buildings in Washington DC (like these - http://www.backyardimage.com/Americas/Washington/9534652_yLUKg#1242530388_XLouf) and have been uploading to the main sites. Most of them are accepted without any issues, but BigStockPhoto has rejected each one stating that I need to submit and keyword/categorize them as Editorial. I was aware of the copyright restrictions on the Korean Memorial, but the basic buildings such as the Lincoln Memorial, Capitol building - those must be old enough to be outside any architectural design restrictions, surely.

Anyone know of a change in the law about government buildings or why BigStock is now taking this line?

Steve

As long as you do reasonable homework to make sure that there are no restrictions on commercial photography of such buildings, simply shoot an email to BigStock support.

They will sort it out or at least give you a detailed explanation.

I dont know anything about the buildings in Washington DC, but as you have also made a general statement:

FYI, here are 2 links I just found:

http://asmp.org/tutorials/photos-public-buildings.html

http://www.pacaoffice.org/resources/specialReleases.html

As you see, for example the Rockefeller Center is under such protection and is pretty viewable from a public place, the Flat Iron is, the Chrysler BUilding and a long etc, and also, meanwhile not new to me but still hilarious, the Hollywood sign is...

And in general, modern architecture by famous architects is always problematic and more often protected than not, so if you see something that you might think is WORTH a shot, chances are, it is NOT

Thanks for the links - those are helpful! Just a clarification - when I said "public buildings", I really meant ones owned by the "people" such as Federal buildings in the US. I didn't mean privately owned buildings taken from a public place, which have different rules as your links show.

Steve

If there are any federal or muni seals in the image, I can't take them.  This may apply to agency names as well, like FBI etc. Ones where I will make an exception are the Supreme Court or Lib of Congress. Architects rights may apply for the very new stuff. And I can't take the Smithsonian buildings even though they are part of the Nat Parks System, or any Smithsonian interiors.

I put all of your Capitol stuff through no problem. They are either in Pending or already approved. Nice shots.