Question for the military lawyers

I never heard of any such doctrine…”If you take photos during the duty day, the government owns them.” Especially since I have heard the doctrine that “there is no such thing as an off-duty officer,” I think that would lead to absurd results – every officer’s family/vacation photos would be government property.

If you’re performing, let’s say, a police investigation, where the evidence is “FOUO/Law Enforcement Sensitive” or something like that, that’s one thing…you couldn’t release the photos to the public, not because the government “owns” the photos but because of regulatory langauge that says, don’t release this except to people who need to know.

‘course, the command can always order people to limit what they say and what information they release. (As they do with OPSEC.) And they can punish conduct that tends to bring the military into disrepute under Article 134.

I asked a similar question of an Air Force photographer and his response was that anything he took while on duty belonged to the Air Force because that was his MOS. He explained to me that anything I took, as long as it was with my personal gear that I owned, would belong to me.

If I was using a military provided camera then it was owned by the military, unless the photos were taken while I was off duty.

Then I owned the photos, but would be guilty of misappropriation of military equipment.

I don’t know how right he is (and my online Army photojournalism class didn’t touch on this at all), but it makes more sense than some of the stuff that goes on on the civilian side of things when it comes to questions of photography ownership/copyright.

(hm, now that you mention it, photographic casualties is or at least was forbidden under GO #1 – see section 2f of the ’06 CENTCOM version, which is the one that popped up on a quick Google:

http://militaryatheists.org/regs/JPGO1B-4.pdf )

btw, I think the question of “ownership” would really matter only if the government was trying to sue the LA Times to get the photos taken down or prevent publication, which would put them up against the “Pentagon Papers” case – not a good position for the gov’t to be in.

I’m not sure photos taken with a personal camera are considered property of the military. On the other hand, if they were taken while on duty, that might be another story.

I used my personal equipment plenty of times in a public affairs capacity, because the equipment the unit gave me was substandard to my own. I’m pretty sure that any photos I took with it belong to the military.

I’m a Public Affairs NCO, photo and broadcast journalist in the Army. I’ve taught alot of deploying units, unit public affairs reps, and provided media escort to foreign and domestic media over the last decade.

Any imagery done with military property is military property. We release our products freely with associated press standards (see DVIDShub.net). So the legalities of the products are more directed towards receiving external profit due to these images being broadcasted world-wide for AP use. I can use my photography, taken on combat zones or grip and grin ceremonies at my reserve center for personal portfolios or Facebook uploads if I was so inclined.

Personal property, video cameras, etc, don’t fall into this. Operational Security and general control of these personal documentation is basically controlled by the units leadership and command policy. I’ve seen everything from zero-tolerance during missions to Soldiers allowed to strap small video camera to their helmets during kicking in door operations for personal memories.

In the end if it doesn’t violate conventions, OPSEC, POW legalities, etc I’ve never heard of an issue when a service members personal documentation was questioned. However with the miles of legalities present in a warzone and our services record keeping I wouldn’t be surprised if one could find a policy within this soldiers unit command policy that prevented such photos. There I’d also issues with dead bodies, destruction/damage of host nation infulstructure, etc that can be tagged into the same realm of POW/arrests photography.

I was did several right seat / left seat missions with the Iraqi army when they were detaining suspected insurgents where my documentation was used sololy for internal record keeping or weapon cache photography for the units. These were orders though, unsure if its anythig beyond host nation sensitivities.

@9: no, the article clearly stated that he was in 4th BCT. The Blue Falcons are 1-325 in 2nd BCT.

@9 and 12. I was a Blue Falcon when 4-325 took over 3-325’s colors around 1996. Even got the spiffy grey and blue (but holey and thread bare t-shirt to prove it! 3-325 was over in Vincenzia before they brought back the 173rd over there I think.