DescriptionMassachusetts Soldiers' Home Police Patch.svg
English: Digital illustration of the shoulder patch of (at least one of) the now-defunct "Soldiers' Home Police" agencies of the two Soldiers' Homes in Massachusetts (in Chelsea and Holyoke). It is unclear if this was the final patch worn by the agencies. It is unclear if this was the original patch worn by the agencies. It is unclear if both locations shared the same patch. Soldiers' Home police were disbanded in the early 2020s.
"File:Massachusetts Soldiers' Home Police Patch.svg" is a digital illustration/reproduction of a law enforcement agency's shoulder patch wholly created by myself ("the artist"). This now-defunct agency was (formerly) a state agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The original shoulder patch is — in the artist's opinion — in the public domain within 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.
This is consistent with the analysis made by the Harvard Library at [1] (original), [2] (archived).
Regardless of the copyright status of the original shoulder patch, the artist asserts that "File:Massachusetts Soldiers' Home Police Patch.svg" was independently created utilizing said shoulder patch as a model and was created for educational and illustration purposes, only. The artist relinquishes any and all rights to "File:Massachusetts Soldiers' Home Police Patch.svg" in perpetuity.
For questions regarding the legality of re-use, reproduction, or other uses, consulting a qualified copyright attorney in your jurisdiction is recommended. The author of this permission statement is not providing legal advice. By re-using, reproducing, or otherwise utilizing this image in any way, the user assumes full responsibility for ensuring the legality of their actions, both criminally and civilly. In re-using, reproducing, or otherwise utilizing this image in any way, no relationship is established between the uploader of this image, the author of this permission statement, and/or any user(s) of this image or derivatives thereof.
The person who associated a work with this deed has dedicated the work to the public domain by waiving all of their rights to the work worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighboring rights, to the extent allowed by law. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.
http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.enCC0Creative Commons Zero, Public Domain Dedicationfalsefalse
Captions
Shoulder patch of the now-defunct "Soldiers' Home Police" agencies of the various Soldiers' Homes in Massachusetts.