stealing images

Reasteh

Reasteh

Reasteh

Associate
Joined
6 Jul 2007
Posts
431
Location
Notts, UK
Whats the law on taking images from other sites and putting them on my site. Can i simply copy them without any problems? how can i tell if some are copyrighted etc
 
If you take them and they are in fact copyrighted, you would still be liable UNLESS the website you took them from stated that THEY were offering them for use and you could prove it.

Generally speaking though, as long as its a personal site and not anything commercial, they usually won't bother with you. Its the commercial sites they go after.
 
Purchase or draw / photograph your own.

It is probably be fine (if unethical) right up to the point where your site becomes the world number 1 and bigger than google.

At that point I am sure half of America will try and sue you claiming you stole their graphics for guzwampbazillian dollars so why risk it ;).

Getting the graphics for my websites is causing me a number of issues too as I cant draw without my 10 year old almost wetting himself with laughter.

RB
 
depends on the graphics really, email and ask someone for permission, i did yesterday to a guy who does icons and he said no problem.
 
intellix said:
I thought that unless there was a Copyright © on the bottom of the page, then you're liable for stealing :P
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You don't need copyright on any page - copyright arises on creation - if you write the letter 'A' in some special artistic form right now - it is copyright to you. The hard part is proving copyright. One trick is to mail the work to yourself and leave it in a sealed envelope - the postmark will prove the date of creation and thus copyright coming into existence.

In answer to the OP's question - you can't copy them unless you have permission. (Well, you can, but you breach copyright).
 
copywrite on photos starts from when the image is taken, you cannot assume they are copywrite free or chances are youll end up with a nice letter asking for fees from using the image without permission.
 
In fact most images on the Internet are not copyrighted and are royalty free. The 'reality' of the situation (best practice) is that you can use images at will, and if someone does come knocking then you take the image off.

How to spot copyright images? For example, Reuters is famous for using Getty images, and images on their website are clearly marked as having originated from Getty -this is a big no no then, but to be honest, people still take them and use them freely. Again, unless someone comes knocking at the door and you ignore them then you are not in trouble.

It aint so pretty, but it is the reality :)

Future developments. Reverse image searches. Google haven't done it yet, but someone else has and their index is growing. TinEye, http://www.tineye.com, for example will accept an image from yourself and search it's index of billions of URLs for uses of that image, and is intelligent enough to recognise crops, blurs etc etc. The index is not all encompassing as Google's but when Google does buy them (haha) the 'reverse image search' technology will be a copyrighter's dream tool.

I am not offering legal advice, but quite simply the reality. Even the BBC do it, I have seen the Guardian do it. Until someone comes knocking, nothing to worry about; just plead ignorance and comply when they do.

Obviously, don't attempt to copyrighte the image yourself of course or incorporate it into any copyrighted material such as a logo.

Majestic~
 
Dont take the risk.

Friend of mine created a site for a mate for free. 6 years later(!) his mate got an email from Corbis saying that he was using one of their images. They demanded £3000. He ignored it at first and just changed the image. They didnt go away and settled at £2000.

Its not an isolated case either - It happens quite a lot.

This wasnt a high profile site or anythign, although it was for a small business. I have no idea how they found it - I'm guessing some sort of algorithm to look for similar images.

Stock photography at places like istockphoto is very cheap and theres a good selection, so theres no excuse really.
 
Sagalout said:
Friend of mine created a site for a mate for free. 6 years later(!) his mate got an email from Corbis saying that he was using one of their images. They demanded £3000. He ignored it at first and just changed the image. They didnt go away and settled at £2000.
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Case in point, the action to take is plead ignorance and act, taking the image off the website immediately and not to ignore any legal action, ever.

I would be interested to know, if I may ask, was your friend's website for profit or did the website at any point attempt to copyright the content therein?

Majestic~
 
From the other thread I understand that in the UK they have to prove that I used the image knowingly, which I did not.
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Taken from your link, thanks Sagalout.

I have asked our legal team for advice on some examples and will offer up what is said. It will be related to the UK, and I have asked for examples of b2b, b2c and c2c involving copyrighted images. In the past, the response has always been 'Act when they come knocking', and I stand by that but will post what they say.

Majestic~
 
brainchylde said:
One trick is to mail the work to yourself and leave it in a sealed envelope - the postmark will prove the date of creation and thus copyright coming into existence.
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That doesn't work as you could quite easily send your self a unsealed envelope.
 
Ive used images from istockphoto, Stock.XCHNG as well as contacting people on flickr. Flickr is a good resource and if you check out my site www.the-pier.co.uk you'll see that a lot of the images on the pier article pages have come from flickr. I've asked and obtained permission and provided a link back to the users profile.
 
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