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AP/Wide World

Rights and Restrictions Information

Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 20540-4730


Publication and other forms of distribution: May be restricted. AP/Wide World controls the copying of Associated Press and Wide World images physically housed in its archives in New York City. The address of AP/Wide World is:

AP Images
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
telephone (212) 621-1930

AP/Wide World does not control the copying of AP/Wide World images housed in the Library of Congress.

  • In an attempt to determine if AP/Wide World registered any copyrights and if those copyrights were renewed, Specialists in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress searched the Copyright Office files. It was found that only a few images were registered for copyright and those copyrights were not renewed.
  • However, the Library’s legal office has advised the Division that photographs published with proper copyright notices 95 years ago or less up until 1963 may be protected if the copyright was properly renewed, while works published after 1963 and unpublished photographs in the collection may be protected even if they were not registered with the Copyright Office. (For a summary of copyright terms, see: Copyright and Other Restrictions That Apply to Publication/Distribution of Images: Assessing the Risk of Using a P&P Image - How Long Copyrights Last.)
  • Additionally, researchers should be advised that determining the copyright status of photographs can be problematic because of the lack of pertinent information, and researchers often have to make calculated risk decisions concerning the appropriate use of an image when its copyright status is unknown or ambiguous. Privacy and publicity rights may also apply.

Access: Subject to P&P policy on serving originals.

Reproduction (photocopying, hand-held camera copying, photoduplication and other forms of copying allowed by "fair use"): Subject to P&P policy on copying.

Credit Line: Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, [Reproduction number e.g., LC-USZ62-123456].

For more information, please read: Copyright and Other Restrictions That Apply to Publication/Distribution of Images: Assessing the Risk of Using a P&P Image


Prepared by: Prints and Photographs Division staff. Revised: Sept. 2017; March 2019.


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  March 25, 2022
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