Talk:List of counties in Maryland

Rather than put this in separate talk pages for each county, I'm putting this here. The seals for each of the counties in Maryland can be found on the Web. I do not know whether they are public-domain, however. But if anyone wants to check out the public-domain status of these, they can get the images at places like:

  http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/mdmanual/36loc/al/images/alseal.gif
  http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/mdmanual/36loc/fr/images/frseal.gif

etc. (in most cases, the "al" (as in Allegany) and "fr" (as in Frederick) are replaced by the first 2 letters of the county name. For some like Calvert, Caroline, and Carroll, more than 2 letters are needed to distinguish them. -- BRG (Sept. 28, 2002)

I know that some states have laws passed that disallow the usage of the state seal. Unlike the federal government, the states can and do copyright material (I have been in contact with a number of states on the issue). One email explained that the seal is like a signature and you can't use someone else's signature without permission. I wouldn't use the seal unless I had some sort of positive proof that it can be used. -- Ram-Man

I had hoped that someone might have checked to find out whether or not they can be used. But at any rate, until it can be determined, would it not be appropriate to put these URLs as external links? -- BRG (July 9, 2003)

I don't see how there could possibly be any copyright issue (Title 17, United State Code, intellectual property) regarding reproduction of the image of the official seal of Maryland. -----First, the current seal (it is technically the "reverse" of the Great Seal) was created in the 1600's. Copyright does not last so long. -----Second, the image of the seal is a public domain image in any case. Maryland does not claim a proprietary interest in the nature of a copyright interest: http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/msa/mdmanual/01glance/html/symbols/reverse.html However, there are certain restrictions on the use of the image of the state seal, primarily aimed at preventing fraudulent misrepresentation. Thus, it is illegal to impersonate a state official by, say, putting the seal on one's automobile or wearing it as a badge on one's clothing in order to deceive, and there would be similar restrictions on using it as letterhead. (The U.S. federal government, which does not claim "copyright" to the images of the official seals of its own agencies, also forbids the misuse of those images.) I don't believe there are any "copyright" restrictions on images of any of the Maryland County seals, either, but there are surely restrictions against deceptive misuse. [Nov. 13, 2004]