File:863px-USA Declaration of Independence.jpg

Summary
This is a high-resolution image of the United States Declaration of Independence (article - text). This image is a version of the 1823 William Stone facsimile — Stone may well have used a wet pressing process (that removed ink from the original document onto a contact sheet for the purpose of making the engraving). It is possible that this image is not covered by this exemption because it is not a work of the federal government. The federal government did not exist until the ratification of the Constitution in 1789. Also, although this paragraph previously stated that the image's creation coincides exactly with the United States coming into existence, that is technically incorrect. The vote to declare independence was on July 2, 1776, but the vote on the exact text of the declaration was on July 4, 1776. However, if there was ever a valid copyright, then. Date: 4 July 1776(1776-07-04) Source: United States Declaration of Independence Author: William Stone Permission:This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to Australia, the European Union and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years.