Okay, I have a friend who is running a local business of making websites for local businesses. He's a damn good at what he does and I would like to help him as well. However, I have a few questions of my own regarding what he does. Is using pictures and graphics, from say google images, a copyright infringment? How does one know if a picture is copyright protected or not? Is there a place where you can find graphics and images that are in the free domain i.e. without copyrights? What are some tips to avoid legal trouble in the future? Are using tabs/button designs from other websites copyright infringment as well? These businesses are using it for advertising so making such a website is for profit...
2006-12-26 04:59:19 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Politics & Government ➔ Law & Ethics
Using pictures and graphics from other websites is a standard practice on the web, but one must be very careful. Unless something is explicitly labeled as public domain, there is a good chance that someone has a copyright on it.
Some web authoring software have themes with buttons and tabs that you can use so that would be the best bet. Copying someone elses custom buttons, tabs, pictures, javascript or whatever is opening a door to all sorts of problems.
The best way to avoid legal action is to customize your own buttons, take your own photographs, write your own code, author your own content.
And be sure to put a copyright notice on the bottom ensuring no one will swipe it.
2006-12-26 05:23:33 · answer #1 · answered by Cribbage 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Every work is copyrighted under US law for a period of 75 years after the death of the originator. There is no legal need to display copyright notice to secure this protection - being the creator of a work is sufficient.
To use another person's images, words, or music in a website or other publication requires that you obtain a release from the owner of the copyright. If you are unable to find the copyright owner, you must not use the image; to do so would be a breach of the copyright law.
I would advise your friend to look for images and other material that is released under the Creative Commons license. This is a copyright notice that authors can attach to works they want to share with the public free of charge. The Creative Commons license may restrict the use of an image or other work however; it may for example, allow you to use an image on your blog or personal website, but not allow you to sell it as a service or part of a commercial website.
http://creativecommons.org/ is the main site for Creative Commons.
Wikimedia Commons is a similar collection of creative-commons licensed items: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.
Note that Google can legally collate images for reference purposes; but downloading an image from that site and re-using it is almost certainly a copyright infringement.
2006-12-26 05:36:11 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
If you using the images for your private use there's no problem, but when they are put out there for puplic consumption you are liable to pay the publishers of the photos a copyright fee of £9 for every item you use.
2016-05-23 08:04:57 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋