Image Copyrights?

Question

I have had a couple people yelling at me for having a picture they claim to own, hosted on my website. They demand I take it down, but cant do anything to prove they own the picture, or that they have a copyright on it. The only thing they can prove at all, is that they had it on their website for 3 months longer then I have.

Is their claim valid if they have no proof or paperwork on the copyright? And since their website has the picture up for all the public to see, save, or take as they please, am I really in fault for putting it up on my website under the same conditions they have?

The image is not all that important to me, I just hate the idea of packing down from a loudmouth that cant back their claim. If I do that every time, I wouldnt be able to have so much as a smiley face icon on my website.

Answer 1

This is an issue of DMCA law.

see www.chillingeffects.org for exactly what they need to provide to *your isp* or to you in order to have them take the picture down.

until and unless they catch on and send the right information, then no one has to take the picture down.

they don't need to prove they own the copyright, but they need to attest to it under threat of perjury.

and if they do that and you don't take it down, there are severe penalties for you.

none of that prevents either side from disputing the ownership of the picture while it is down, and acting accordingly once the dispute is resolved.

Answer 2

The copyright in the picture belongs to whoever took it (Unless that person took the picture "for hire", in which case his employer at the time owns it)

That a picture is published on the web makes it no less copyright than if it was published in a magazine. Copying a picture off a site and putting it on yours is EXACTLY the same crime as cutting it out of a magazine and republishing it in your magazine.

Maybe the person complaining is the owner of the copyright, and maybe he isn't. The fact is though that YOU are not the owner, and therefore you're violating SOMEONE'S copyright.

"If I do that every time, I wouldnt be able to have so much as a smiley face icon on my website."

Here's a novel idea..... why not put your OWN pictures and art on the site, instead of stealing other people's?

EVERY photo and other artistic creation has a copyright holder, and when you use them without permission you are breaking the law.

And as to the "smiley face"... the link below is to an article about a lawsuit over who DOES own that copyright.

Richard

Answer 3

Regardless of whether or not the people asking you to take down the photograph own its copyright, you certainly do not own it and are thus violating copyright law by copying it and distributing it on your website, unless you have been given permission by the copyright owner to do so.

An image being available online does not make it open to copying and does not put it in the public domain, anymore than publishing a book makes it legal to copy it.