Do you use photos in your blog? Watch out or you might be sued
Do you ever blog about current events? And use a photo that's gone viral?
Newspapers are hanging on by their fingernails these days. And it looks like a few of them have decided to try to recoup their losses by going after folks who use their photos without permission or payment.
The New York Times reports: " When Brian Hill, a 20-year-old blogger from North Carolina, posted on his Web site last December a photograph of an airport security officer conducting a pat-down, a legal battle was the last thing he imagined. A month later, Mr. Hill received an e-mail from a reporter for The Las Vegas Sun who was looking into a Nevada company that files copyright lawsuits for newspapers. The e-mail informed Mr. Hill that he was one of those that the company, Righthaven, was suing. Though the airport photo had gone viral before Mr. Hill plucked it off the Web, it belonged to The Denver Post, where it first appeared on Nov. 18."
Righthaven is going after lots of folks - including mom and pop bloggers who blog as a hobby.
Read more here.
So what's a blogger to do? It's probably best to rely on something like morguefile.com, which has thousands of photos you can use for free.
Do you know of another source for free photos?
Newspapers are hanging on by their fingernails these days. And it looks like a few of them have decided to try to recoup their losses by going after folks who use their photos without permission or payment.
The New York Times reports: " When Brian Hill, a 20-year-old blogger from North Carolina, posted on his Web site last December a photograph of an airport security officer conducting a pat-down, a legal battle was the last thing he imagined. A month later, Mr. Hill received an e-mail from a reporter for The Las Vegas Sun who was looking into a Nevada company that files copyright lawsuits for newspapers. The e-mail informed Mr. Hill that he was one of those that the company, Righthaven, was suing. Though the airport photo had gone viral before Mr. Hill plucked it off the Web, it belonged to The Denver Post, where it first appeared on Nov. 18."
Righthaven is going after lots of folks - including mom and pop bloggers who blog as a hobby.
Read more here.
So what's a blogger to do? It's probably best to rely on something like morguefile.com, which has thousands of photos you can use for free.
Do you know of another source for free photos?
RE: Copyright
I have an online, text based role-playing game, where players like to post pictures of their characters, and I've had to tell them countless times that unless they have permission from the artist or photographer - or can show proof that the image is in public domain, that they can't use the image.
You cannot imagine how many arguments I've gotten into over that because they feel if it was on Google Images, then it's public domain.
Re: RE: Copyright