I've used pictures from other websites for postings in this forum. Is there any legal or copyright issues that I should be made aware of? I'm asking because the last thing that I want to do is to put this forum in any jeopardy. I really love this forum. It's my favorite.

The rule at Big Blue is to post only pictures that you take or have the right to use. Any thing published after 1978 as a rule is always copyrighted automatically. If it was published before 1978 the copyright may have expired. It is tough to know what is legal and what isn't so it is best to stay with your own pictures.
Charlie

If the picture is copyrighted, just post a link to the picture.

Tom

FiatFan Wrote:If the picture is copyrighted, just post a link to the picture.

Every picture is automatically copyrighted by the photographer, even if it's not registered with the copyright office. The act of clicking the shutter makes it legally the photographer's image. Registering the photo(s) just makes recovery of damages and legal fees easier.

The Wikipedia article on copyright is reasonably easy to understand. <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright</a><!-- m -->. Basically, all original works are automatically copyright by their creator(s). Some things can be used to illustrate a point you are making, or in a review of the copyrighted work (e.g. book review). This is called "fair use".

In all cases, you should give credit to the source, not simply copy and paste (or save and upload) pictures or other works. In most cases, you should link to the site that hosts the work, so that it may be seen in the full context, and that viewers must buy access or abide by any other restrictions the creator has placed on their work. In only a few cases, should you use an image link [img] because this eats up bandwidth at the hosting site, and is considered poor "netiquette".

Use of photos on this site is restricted to fair use (e.g. using a photo from Walthers, with credit, for a review of one of their products) or works that you have created yourself, hold copyright for (e.g. you have purchased the original work), and/or have permission to post.


Andrew

I happened to notice that my last picture didn't have the website on the bottom of the picture and I then received an email from another member asking for permission to use another photograph that I posted. In no way did I expect people to infer that these were my photographs. I want to correct this mistake without putting anyone in trouble.

Mike Kieran Wrote:I happened to notice that my last picture didn't have the website on the bottom of the picture and I then received an email from another member asking for permission to use another photograph that I posted. In no way did I expect people to infer that these were my photographs. I want to correct this mistake without putting anyone in trouble.

Thanks Mike.

We appreciate your thoughtfulness on this subject. Many people think that the Internet is one big free source of "stuff".

I guess the bottom line is: when in doubt, provide a link and a credit.


Andrew

I have contributed many older pictures that I have taken, both here and on other sites. If someone wants to use my pictures elsewhere on the web, ask for permission and I will let you, it is common courtesy. I have found some of my pictures posted on other sites that were taken from a railroad picture website. I was given credit, but was never asked for permission to use them. It's like being away from home and a neighbor sees a tool he can use so he just borrows it without consent.
I do have a problem with sites that get a picture from a public domain site and rather than credit the original photographer, they stick a copyright on it in their name. IMO This isn't exactly a legal copyright, they didn't take the picture, nor buy the rights and in many cases the photographer has donated the pictures to the public.
Charlie

Copyright law is a total minefield, especially internationally, where different legislation and rules apply to different countries - For example in UK the copyright applies up to 70 years AFTER THE DEATH of the copyright holder, unless it has been assigned to his heirs or someone else - eg a magazine publisher!
Another example - you will find people posting pictures of trackplans , scanned from Model Railroader, on websites asking " would this be a good starter layout? How would I reduce it to N gauge?" What they don't realise is that not only are THEY breaking copyright - but so are THE PEOPLE RUNNING THE WEBSITE for not removing it (and therefore condoning and "publishing" it!) Copyright is one of the reasons there are so many very rich lawyers and law firms. Think about the trouble caused by YouPee claiming intellectual property rights over their name appearing on models The best way is to post a link if you possibly can - unless the item is actually YOURS - ie YOU took it or wrote it - WHEN IN DOUBT --DON'T!!!

As a Moderator on several groups - it is one of those things I take VERY carefully, and will remove posts if copyright applies - or if \I have reason to believe it does.

Every year I send an electronic "Christmas Card" to friends - always featuring a great photo I have found on a website. In EACH case I contact the originator, ask for permission to use it, and have NEVER had a refusal - I always add a copyright symbol, a year date, and the name of the photographer at the bottom as well

Just to chime in here, as a matter of course, we take copyright protection very seriously on Big Blue. Our rules do specify that you do not post or copy anything that you don't own or have permission to do so. Fortunately, most people adhere to this policy and we rarely have to remove material, but make no mistake, we monitor everything closely and have deleted things when necessary. If there's any doubt, we will move a post to another area until we get clarification. I've seen other forums where the administration is not so diligent and members seem to freely post pictures and articles they've found elsewhere without regards to their source. They don't seem to care that they are jeopardizing their reputation, the existence of their site and perhaps financial damages if someone can prove that it is routine on that site. There are site owners in jail right now because of things like this and Mikey and myself are not going to put ourselves in any of these positions.

Regardless of how diligent we are, some things will inevitably get past us. Frequently we do not know if someone has taken a photo or has just copied it form somewhere else. We need to rely on their judgment most often. Still, we will deal quickly with anything that we see or that is brought to our attention. The basic rule to follow is, if you don't own it or have permission from the owner, don't post it. That includes sketches, photos, articles or anything else either in you post, avatar or signature. If in doubt, ask or better yet, just post a link to what you want others to see. Giving credit without permission is not good enough.

Don - I hope you didn't think I was referring to Big Blue in my post above - Quite seriously one of the better run, and better content, websites in my opinion. There are, as you say, other sites where moderation - if any - is minimal, and it seems that anything goes!
Jack

shortliner Wrote:Don - I hope you didn't think I was referring to Big Blue in my post above - Quite seriously one of the better run, and better content, websites in my opinion. There are, as you say, other sites where moderation - if any - is minimal, and it seems that anything goes!
Jack

Nope, I didn't think you meant us. I was just stating our position and like you, how others deal with this issue... or not deal with it as the case may be. There are a couple of gun forums that I go to occasionally, and there is no monitoring of copyrighted material, just about anything goes with copy/paste. Our members here are very mindful of what and how to post here, and we a very proud that you all keep these forums as good as you all do. As a result, our moderators have little to do but to chase away the spammers that show up. And that's another thing, I look through some forums and spam prevails with no apparent effort to curb it. Here, we are constantly chasing away and banning spammers, sometimes before they even have a chance to complete their registration. Trash talk and rabble-rousing are just about non-existent here as well. We rarely have to lock a thread or delete one because it got out of hand or way off topic.

As a result, Mikey, myself and all the mods are proud of what we have here and it wouldn't be this way without the dedicated and conscientious members we have here. We are humbly pleased.

If in doubt, link to the item on the other site and let the copyright be their problem.

But, as I understand it, the recently shouted down Canadian law would have gone after sites that link to copyright-infracting sites.

Embedding an image is different than hosting it, Embedding an image is still linking to an image except it shows the image instead of the link.

Unfortunately most politicians don't understand how the internet work and are almost constantly making terribly flawed "Internet Piracy" laws, Ironically the Congressman who sponsored the infamous SOPA bill uses a copyrighted image on his official website without giving credit to the owner.

There is another "Internet Piracy" bill called ACTA that has already been signed by our President, it is just waiting for a few European countries to sign it before it can become law. Thankfully there have been major protests over this and countries are starting to oppose it.

Just to be safe I always give a link, You don't need to give credit for a link since it will usually go to the owners site, I am not sure what the rules are for embedding, like I said earlier it is almost the same as a link, but the law might saw different.

There are other issues as well. The internet itself works under the assumption that the content is available to all unless otherwise specified. If you browse for images, you will notice that the professional block their images from being copied without their permission. Images not blocked are considered free for the most part, or simply require a link.

There is also the issue of outfits on the net like Photobucket, used by a lot of us. Once an image is copied to Photobucket, they relabel it as one of theirs, and they permit outsiders to browse your stored images. Therefore, nothing copied to Photobucket is considered off limits unless you make the effort to block off your account.

Acceptable practice is to post a link to the material that takes a viewer back to the source, if that is possible. It is not always possible to do that with certain types of accounts. It is also devilishly hard to contact the copywrite holders a lot of the time, leaving you with nowhere to go, even when trying to do the right thing.

I make every effort to follow the rules, but in the end, the final responsibility rests on the shoulders of the owner of the image, who has the option to remove the image from the open internet in order to protect, or to take the step to block the copy function. Failure to take either of those steps is de facto permission for the public top use the image under the general conditions described above -give credit.