Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich Sworn In to Office 2003

Photos of Governor Rod Blagojevich and the Illinois Governor's mansion taken from the US Federal Government website and are considered in the public domain.

Public domain materials generally fall into one of four categories:

1. Generic information, such as facts, numbers and ideas.

2. Works whose copyrights have lapsed due to the passage of time or the failure of the copyright holder to renew a registration (a requirement that applies to works created before 1978).

3. Works created prior to March 1989 that failed to include a proper notice of copyright.

4. Works created by the U.S. federal government.

Also, in rare instances, works may be "dedicated" (donated) to the public domain.

Source: copyright.com