The 3 photos I'm interested in are credited on the website as coming from "NASA ESA". The website is not charging for copies, or degrading the images. We would credit NASA ESA as the "source on the product", but need to know if that is adequate. Are these photos considered public domain or do I need to contact NASA for permission to use? Please advise.
ESA is the European Space Agency, which is the European version of our U.S. NASA, and ESA and NASA are 2 different agencies, but it's possible that they share credit for these photos. As my colleagues noted, generally these space photos from these agencies are in the public domain.
The official Hubble website is run by the Space Telescope Science Institute, operated out of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. If you got these photos from www.hubblesite.org, their copyright notice says that THEY don't claim copyright for photos their people took and they're in the public domain, but they do request acknowledgment/credit as per their notice, and anyone else's photos from their photo gallery may have copyright notice that may not be public domain.
Disclaimer: Please note that this answer does not constitute legal advice, and should not be relied on, since each state has different laws, each situation is fact specific, and it is impossible to evaluate a legal problem without a comprehensive consultation and review of all the facts and documents at issue. This answer does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Since NASA is a government agency, its images aren't generally copyrighted. With one caveat, you can use the images for personal, informational and educational purposes. The caveat: If the photos contain the image of a living person, that person may have "publicity rights" in their use. In that event, you would need the permission of the person depicted in the photo before using it.
Equally importantly, you cannot use NASA's name, logo, insignia or images in such a fashion as to suggest that NASA has endorsed or is endorsing any commercial product, service or activity.
You would be well advised to review the list of prohibitions contained at the bottom of the page at http://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/multimedia/gtv_copyright.html, and to consult with an attorney before making any commercial use of NASA's images.
Disclaimer: This response does not establish an attorney-client relationship or constitute legal advice. It is for informational purposes only.
The rule is that works of authorship [such as photographs] created by federal government employees within the scope of their employment are NOT protected by copyright. Anyone can copy and distribute those works.
This rule does NOT apply, however, to works of authorship created by federal government contractors [such as those who run and/or use the Hubble telescope] unless their company's contract with the government requires the works to be in the public domain.
So ... the copyright status of the three Hubble photographs that you have depends on who took each photograph and the contract that person's employer has with NASA.
See http://www.spacetelescope.org/copyright/ and http://hubblesite.org/about_us/copyright.php .
