The Library of Congress is providing access to these materials for educational and research purposes and makes no warranty with regard to their use for other purposes. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. The written permission of the copyright owners and/or holders of other rights (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions.
With a few exceptions, which are noted below, the Library is not aware of any U.S. copyright protection (see Title 17, U.S.C.) or any other restrictions in the materials included in this online presentation. There may be content that is protected as "works for hire" (copyright may be held by the party that commissioned the original work) and/or under the copyright or neighboring-rights laws of other nations.
Note that the Samuel F. B. Morse Papers in the Library of Congress's Manuscript Division consists of personal papers and other manuscript materials. The Library of Congress received the collection as a series of gifts from descendants of Samuel F. B. Morse and through purchases. Works created by Morse, his family, and other individuals may in some cases be subject to copyright. In many of these cases, we were unable to identify a possible rightsholder and have elected to place these items online as an exercise of fair use for strictly non-commercial educational uses. Users are reminded that in all cases responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.