File:Seal of Los Angeles.svg

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This is a file from the Wikimedia Commons. The description on its description page there is copied below.

Summary

Description

An approximation of the seal of Los Angeles, California. On March 27, 1905 Ordinance 10,834 authorized and described the City Seal still being used today.[1].

The shield has quarterings of the United States, California, Mexico, and Spain.

Date

27 March 1905

Source

https://lacity.gov/sites/g/files/wph2121/themes/site/logo.svg

Author

The official seal for the City of Los Angeles was designed by Herbert L. Goudge, a deputy city attorney, and officially adopted on March 27, 1905 via Ordinance 10,834.

Permission
(Reusing this file)

Public domain from a copyright standpoint, but other restrictions may apply. California Penal Code Section 472 states that "Every person who, with intent to defraud another, forges, or counterfeits the seal of this State, the seal of any public officer authorized by law, the seal of any Court of record, or the seal of any corporation, or any other public seal authorized or recognized by the laws of this State, or of any other State, Government, or country, or who falsely makes, forges, or counterfeits any impression purporting to be an impression of any such seal, or who has in his possession any such counterfeited seal or impression thereof, knowing it to be counterfeited, and willfully conceals the same, is guilty of forgery."

This image shows a flag, a coat of arms, a seal or some other official insignia. The use of such symbols is restricted in many countries. These restrictions are independent of the copyright status.

Other versions

here, here, here and here, among others.

Licensing

The author died in 1929, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 80 years or fewer.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1929.

This file has been identified as being free of known restrictions under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights.

PDMCreative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0falsefalse

This work was created by a government unit (including state, county, city, and municipal government agencies) that derives its powers from the laws of the State of California and is subject to disclosure under the California Public Records Act (Government Code § 6250 et seq.). It is a public record that was not created by an agency which state law has allowed to claim copyright, and is therefore in the public domain in the United States.

Records subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act

Pursuant to the California Public Records Act (Government Code § 6250 et seq.) "Public records" include "any writing containing information relating to the conduct of the public’s business prepared, owned, used, or retained by any state or local agency regardless of physical form or characteristics." (Cal. Gov't. Code § 6252(e).) notes that "[a]ll public records are subject to disclosure unless the Public Records Act expressly provides otherwise." County of Santa Clara v. CFAC California Government Code § 6254 lists categories of documents not subject to disclosure under the Public Records Act. In addition, computer software is not considered a public record, while data and statistics collected (whether collected knowingly or unknowingly) by a government authority whose powers derive from the laws of California are public records (such as license plate reader images) pursuant to EFF & ACLU of Southern California v. Los Angeles Police Department & Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and are not exempt from disclosure and are public records.

Although the act only covers “writing,” the Act, pursuant to Government Code § 6252(g), states: “Writing” means any handwriting, typewriting, printing, photostating, photographing, photocopying, transmitting by electronic mail or facsimile, and every other means of recording upon any tangible thing any form of communication or representation, including letters, words, pictures, sounds, or symbols, or combinations thereof, and any record thereby created, regardless of the manner in which the record has been stored.

Agencies permitted to claim copyright

California's Constitution and its statutes do not permit any agency to claim copyright for "public records" unless authorized to do so by law. The following agencies are permitted to claim copyright and any works of these agencies should be assumed to be copyrighted outside of the United States without clear evidence to the contrary:

County boards of education. See Education Code § 1044.
School districts. See Education Code § 35170.
Community college districts. See Education Code § 72207.
The Department of Toxic Substances Control. See Health & Safety Code §§ 25111, 25201.11.
The Health and Human Services Agency (as to certain specified deliverables relating to the health information exchange). See Health & Safety Code § 130251.15.
The Commission on Judicial Appointments (as to certain recordings). Commission on Judicial Appointments, Guideline 7.
The California Education Information System. See Education Code §§ 10601, 10603.
The State Fire Marshal (as to promotional examinations). See Health & Safety Code § 13159.8.

County of Santa Clara v. CFAC held that the State of California, or any government entity which derives its power from the State, cannot enforce a copyright in any record subject to the Public Records Act in the absence of another state statute giving it the authority to do so. This applies even if there is a copyright notice, so long as the State of California or one of its agencies (other than those listed above) is indicated as the copyright holder.

Note: Works that are considered "public records" but were not created by a state or municipal government agency may be copyrighted by their author; the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution prevents state law from overriding the author's right to copyright protection that is granted by federal law. For example, a state agency may post images online of the final appearance of a building under construction; while the images may have to be released by such agency since they are public records, their creator (eg. architecture/construction firm) retains copyright rights to these images unless the contract with the agency says otherwise. See: Government-in-the-Sunshine Manual: To what extent does federal law preempt state law regarding public inspection of records?.

Copyrightable Works by the State in the United States: Works published by agencies that are permitted to claim copyright per state law should be tagged with {{PD-US-GovEdict}} instead of this template due to the reasons listed on that template.

Disclaimer: The information provided, especially the list of agencies permitted to claim copyright, may not be complete. Wikimedia Commons makes no guarantee of the adequacy or validity of this information in this template (see disclaimer).

File history

Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.

	Date/Time	Dimensions	User	Comment
current	23:36, 27 April 2023	1,024 × 1,024 (257 KB)	Illegitimate Barrister	version from official LA City website.
	22:43, 13 August 2019	1,024 × 1,024 (225 KB)	Illegitimate Barrister	made text thicker, changed colors per: https://www.lacity.org/sites/g/files/wph1196/f/styles/generic/public/city_seal_medium.jpg?itok=6CdficWv
	23:00, 15 December 2015	1,024 × 1,024 (201 KB)	Illegitimate Barrister	Gradients
	22:53, 15 December 2015	979 × 979 (183 KB)	Illegitimate Barrister	color is more of a bronze than a yellow, according to the official city website.
	00:39, 25 February 2014	979 × 979 (183 KB)	Illegitimate Barrister	cropped empty space!!!!!!!!!
	16:37, 21 December 2011	1,024 × 1,024 (144 KB)	Mysid	redraw animals etc.
	10:43, 13 October 2010	1,024 × 1,024 (57 KB)	AnonMoos	adjusting margins
	10:43, 24 May 2006	1,024 × 1,024 (57 KB)	Mysid	{{Information\| \|Description=Seal of Los Angeles, California. \|Source=Self-drawn in CorelDraw. The "rosary" was made using a custom-made Perl script. Source images [http://cityclerk.lacity.org/cps/pdf/cityseals.pdf here], [htt