Rights & Sources Policy
RT Vault is an independent research and documentation project. External images are selected under a conservative rights-clearance standard intended to support long-term scholarly, editorial, and future commercial use.
Material accepted for public display
RT Vault prioritizes material where both the underlying work and the specific digital image are sufficiently cleared for reuse. Preferred sources include:
- works clearly in the public domain, paired with a public-domain or CC0 image;
- museum or library Open Access files explicitly released as CC0 or Public Domain;
- historical works whose copyright has clearly expired and whose reproduction is itself cleared for reuse;
- photographs created by RT Vault, subject to any applicable rights in the depicted work and any venue conditions.
Material not used as a default source
RT Vault does not rely on attribution-only or ShareAlike licensing as its normal publishing standard, and does not treat availability on the web as permission. Material with unclear rights, “all rights reserved” status, non-commercial restrictions, no-derivatives restrictions, unclear modern photography rights, or uncertain third-party rights is withheld from public display until reviewed or replaced.
Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons is treated as a repository rather than a rights guarantee. For material originating there, the relevant file page, creator, source institution, license, and underlying-work status should be verified before publication.
Museums, libraries and archives
Ownership of a physical object does not necessarily equal ownership of copyright. Likewise, a public-domain artwork can still be represented by a separately protected modern photograph or reproduction. RT Vault therefore evaluates the underlying work and the specific image separately, and where relevant also considers venue, collection, privacy, publicity and trademark restrictions.
RT Vault photography
Photographs made by RT Vault are original photographs. Where a photograph depicts a work that may still be protected, the status of that underlying work remains a separate rights question. Photographs of historical objects are also reviewed against any applicable museum or venue conditions.
Ongoing review
Rights information can change, institutional policies can be updated, and legacy records may contain incomplete provenance. RT Vault therefore maintains an ongoing review process. Material with incomplete or conflicting rights evidence may be temporarily withdrawn while its source is verified or replaced with a clearly reusable equivalent.
Last reviewed: October 2026.
