File:Cortes Surigao del Sur.png

Section 176. Works of the Government. - 176.1. No copyright shall subsist in any work of the Government of the Philippines. However, prior approval of the government agency or office wherein the work is created shall be necessary for exploitation of such work for profit. Such agency or office may, among other things, impose as a condition the payment of royalties. No prior approval or conditions shall be required for the use of any purpose of statutes, rules and regulations, and speeches, lectures, sermons, addresses, and dissertations, pronounced, read or rendered in courts of justice, before administrative agencies, in deliberative assemblies and in meetings of public character.

For Cortes and Surigao del Sur

• No free equivalent. Being a seal or a Philippine local government unit (LGU), there is obviously no free equivalent.
• Resolution/fidelity. The seal is of a low resolution such that reproduction in other contexts, such as print publication, is not feasible.
• Respect for commercial opportunities. Since this is a seal of a Philippine LGU, there are no commercial opportunities allowed for the use of the seal by the LGU, the copyright holder. Its use in Wikipedia does not infringe on any commercial opportunities.
• Content and Significance. The purpose of a Philippine LGU seal is chiefly to identify the LGU (such as on the facade of the LGU's buildings) and to authenticate official documents when stamped onto them. The usage of the seal in Wikipedia follows this mandate as a means of visual identification of the LGU in appropriate contexts such as in the LGU's article and templates, and in the articles of encompassing or constituent LGUs.

Local government units have the power to have a corporate seal. Use of the corporate seal and change thereof requires registration with the Department of Interior and Local Government.^[1] Registration of the seals with the Department of Trade and Industry and the Intellectual Property Office IS not required because municipal corporations do not fall within the scope of the term "business" or "enterprise."^[2] The chief purpose of a government seal has been to identify and authenticate documents.^[3]

This work is a product of the government of the Republic of the Philippines. Republic Act 8293 forbids the use of government works for commercial purposes. This image therefore does not qualify for free use under the terms adopted by the Wikimedia Foundation, and is considered non-free on Wikipedia.

To the uploader: Please add a detailed non-free use rationale for each article the image is used in, which must also declare compliance with the other parts of the non-free content criteria, as well as the source of the work and copyright information. For example non-free use rationales, see Wikipedia:Use rationale examples. This tag should only be used for works produced by the government of the Republic of the Philippines. Do not use it for other purposes. To patrollers and administrators: If this image has an appropriate rationale please append |image has rationale=yes as a parameter to the license template.

Aside from the claim that this file qualifies for use without permission under fair use, this file is also available under a license that permits educational, personal, or otherwise non-commercial use only. Files available under such terms do not meet the definition of Free Cultural Works as adopted by the Wikimedia Foundation, and are therefore considered non-free on Wikipedia and may only be used under Wikipedia's non-free content policy. This tag must only be used with a non-free license tag and a valid fair use rationale as required by policy.

This logo is an official seal of a governmental entity or one of its government agencies, and may be subject to copyright, trademark, and/or other restrictions on its reproduction, especially in commercial contexts. The copyright is likely held by the government or agency in question. It is believed that the use of images of seals to illustrate the government or agency in question on the English-language Wikipedia, hosted on servers in the United States by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation, qualifies as fair use under the Copyright law of the United States. Any other uses of this image, on Wikipedia or elsewhere, may be copyright infringement. Use of this seal here does not imply endorsement by Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation, nor does it imply endorsement of Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation by the organization. See Wikipedia:Non-free content and Wikipedia:Logos for more information. Fair use //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cortes_Surigao_del_Sur.png true