Colonel William A. Phillips

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Seal_of_Freetown,_Massachusetts.gif(288 × 293 pixels, file size: 11 KB, MIME type: image/gif)

Summary

Description
English: Seal of the Town of en:Freetown, Massachusetts. Image taken from [1]. The following description of the origin of the seal appears on the town's website: "In 1890 state authorities called the attention of town officers to the advisability of having town seals. Col. Silas P. Richmond, who at that time was chairman of the Board of Selectmen of Freetown, devised the present town seal. The idea was taken from the "consideration" named in the deal of Freeman's Purchase (the tract of land which is now Assonet) from the Indians, a part of which was "one little kettle". The device was accepted by the town as its official seal and was first used in 1893."
Date
Source Government of Massachusetts
Author Town of Freetown
Permission
(Reusing this file)
Insignia 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.

Licensing

Public domain
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This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was a Commonwealth of Massachusetts public record disseminated by a Commonwealth agency or the Massachusetts Archives. Massachusetts' Secretary of the Commonwealth has stated that such works can be copied and used for any purpose. This copyright does not extend to those records created, received, or under the custody of municipalities by M. G. L. c. 66, § 7, unless otherwise stated, nor does this apply to copy-written materials for commercial purposes received by employees of the Commonwealth.
Language describing permissions

A Guide to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, Published by William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Division of Public Records, (Updated January 2017) can be found at https://www.mass.gov/files/2017-06/Public%20Records%20Law.pdf and page 7 says:

"With the exception of situations in which a records custodian is withholding records pursuant to Exemption (n), inquiries into a requester's status or motivation for seeking information are expressly prohibited. [1] Consequently, all requests for public records, even if made for a commercial purpose or to assist the requester in a lawsuit against the holder of the records, must be honored in accordance with the Public Records Law."

  1. See G. L. c. 66, § 10(a) (public records are to be provided to “any person”); see also 950 CMR 32.05(5) (custodian prohibited from inquiring into a requester’s status or motivation); but see G. L. c. 4, § 7(26)(n) (a records custodian may ask the requester to voluntarily provide additional information in order to reach a “reasonable judgment” regarding disclosure of responsive records).
Definition of "public record"

Public records are defined in A Guide to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, Published by William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Division of Public Records, (Updated January 2017) at https://www.mass.gov/files/2017-06/Public%20Records%20Law.pdf on page 40, under M. G. L. c. 4, § 7(26) as:

all books, papers, maps, photographs, recorded tapes, financial statements, statistical tabulations, or other documentary materials or data, regardless of physical form or characteristics, made or received by any officer or employee of any agency, executive office, department, board, commission, bureau, division or authority of the commonwealth, or of any political subdivision thereof, or of any authority established by the general court to serve a public purpose, or any person, corporation, association, partnership or other legal entity which receives or expends public funds for the payment or administration of pensions for any current or former employees of the commonwealth or any political subdivision as defined in section 1 of chapter 32, unless such materials or data fall within the following exemptions found on page 40

Limitations of template usage
Warning Concerned wikipedia editors have noticed that the Commonwealth may make unfounded allegations that copyright protections exist for state regulations based on technical codes developed and copyrighted by private organizations. Where such works/allegations are concerned, {{PD-EdictGov}} and {{PD-US-Codes-and-Standards-as-Statutory-Law}} may be appropriate.
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This is consistent with the statement at http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ARC/arcres/residx.htm:

"Those records created by Massachusetts government agencies and institutions held by the Massachusetts Archives are not copyrighted and are available for public use. Copyright for materials submitted to state agencies may be held by the person or organization that created the document."

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 be "public records", their creator (eg. architecture/construction firm) retains copyright rights to the image 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?.
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Massachusetts seal

Original upload log

The original description page was here. All following user names refer to en.wikipedia.
  • 2008-01-03 21:07 N 300×310×1 (5170 bytes) higher res version from http://www.mass.gov/dhcd/iprofile/seals/102.gif
  • 2005-09-09 04:53 Sahasrahla 85×88×5 (3364 bytes) Seal of the Town of Freetown, Massachusetts.

File history

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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current14:00, 7 July 2015Thumbnail for version as of 14:00, 7 July 2015288 × 293 (11 KB)SimtropolitanTransparency
21:18, 3 January 2008Thumbnail for version as of 21:18, 3 January 2008300 × 310 (5 KB)Nard the Bard{{Information |Description={{en|Seal of the Town of en:Freetown, Massachusetts. Image taken from [http://www.mass.gov/dhcd/iprofile/seals/102.gif]. The following description of the origin of the seal appears on [http://town.freetown.ma.us/about/ the

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