Does Anyone Mind If I Use Their Pictures?

[Blubble37]

 

[CezzaXV]

Legally, if its posted in the public domain with no copyright by its "creator", its fair game.

That said, morals should count for something right? Perhaps everyone can give their permission in general here, to save you having to contact people individually? Starting with me....

That's not necessarily the case. Something being publicly available does not make it public domain. The owner does not have to state that it's copyright for it to be copyright. Generally speaking, photos are copyright to the person who took them unless it explicitly says otherwise.

I'm sure the act of not informing is copyright constitutes a forfeit of the rights thereof? A forfeit/expiry of copyright qualifies as public domain.

It might not be the case in every country in the world, but at the very least in the UK and US, you do not need to state copyright for it to be copyright. If you write, draw or otherwise create anything, the copyright belongs to you immediately unless you decide to give it away, until 70 years after your death in the case of UK copyright (after which, it becomes public domain). The only exception is if you're doing work for an employer, in which case the copyright of your work would belong to them unless previously agreed otherwise.

Copyright is a right, it's not something you have to claim.

 

[Baccus]

I am intregied in how an art project can't have pictures..... But maybe you could still use them by making a title/ intro page with the pictures (after you have asked the original owners of course) and then referance the pictures in your end page of referances with any books or magazines you happened to also use.

Its funny ownership of Pictures posted into any section of the internet, I have recently done some searches on Blue Guppies and low and behold I have had my own pictures appear from a totally different site (?). And now since these pictures are on such a readily available site (the sort that brings up hundreds of pictures) do I still really have "ownership" of these pictures?

Ps If you used any of mine you are welcome to them but I am pretty sure you only used the winners from the comps.

 

[CezzaXV]

Its funny ownership of Pictures posted into any section of the internet, I have recently done some searches on Blue Guppies and low and behold I have had my own pictures appear from a totally different site (?). And now since these pictures are on such a readily available site (the sort that brings up hundreds of pictures) do I still really have "ownership" of these pictures?

Ps If you used any of mine you are welcome to them but I am pretty sure you only used the winners from the comps.

Checked out Aussie copyright laws to make sure and yes, legally speaking you do still have ownership of the photos because you took them. If you were so inclined you could ask the people using them on their own websites to take them down and take legal action if they didn't, not that you could really hope to gain anything from it.

I'm not sure about things like Google, but I would have thought that Google can show pictures because they do not have their own copies of the pictures in search results - they merely link back to the original image wherever it is held.

 

[Baccus]

Its funny ownership of Pictures posted into any section of the internet, I have recently done some searches on Blue Guppies and low and behold I have had my own pictures appear from a totally different site (?). And now since these pictures are on such a readily available site (the sort that brings up hundreds of pictures) do I still really have "ownership" of these pictures?

Ps If you used any of mine you are welcome to them but I am pretty sure you only used the winners from the comps.

Checked out Aussie copyright laws to make sure and yes, legally speaking you do still have ownership of the photos because you took them. If you were so inclined you could ask the people using them on their own websites to take them down and take legal action if they didn't, not that you could really hope to gain anything from it.

I'm not sure about things like Google, but I would have thought that Google can show pictures because they do not have their own copies of the pictures in search results - they merely link back to the original image wherever it is held.

The way that international law is with regards to the internet I would stand as much chance of getting the pictures removed as a snowman surviving in hell. Not that I am worried, in a way its pretty cool that all around the world people are having to "suffer" lol: ) my guppy photos.

 

[CezzaXV]

A bit more research later and I've found out about the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. Seems most countries in the world are in it so you have reasonable international protection in regards to copyright.

Legally you would be well within your rights to ask the people using the photos to take them down, but you wouldn't stand to gain anything from it really, unless perhaps you could prove you suffered a significant financial loss from it. If it bothered you that much you could always ask anyone using them to include a little acknowledgement, or add a watermark or similar yourself to future photographs you post online.

 

[mark2109111]

I dont mind, feel free to use mine. If you could just lable it as mine i would be happy but its not that important