Let's talk about copyrights & being copyright compliant
Over the past few weeks, I have been noticing more & more images popping up on Facebook fan groups, etc., where people are claiming 'ownership' of images that are not theirs. So this is a little guide for anyone who cares to read it, as well as some legal information you might want to keep in mind &/ or maybe pass along to friends, co-members of groups you belong to, etc. By keeping this information in mind- you are saving yourself potential legal problems from the actual copyright owners.
Over the years, while starting up the original Dark Light site & forum (albeit, they were for my Street Team at the time), I had tried to be conscious of giving credits where credits are due & posting those credits as I knew of them.
Since then, I have continued that ideal- in 2007 when I rebuilt the revamped Dark-Light.us site, what once was HIM-Aholics on Ning and now what is HIM-Addicts on Spruz, even now with my blog, tags, etc.
One thing has bothered me with some HIM sites, communities & Facebook groups, regarding crediting- that is they have never striven to be copyright compliant or enforce members giving 'due credits' like they should. There are several groups & communities that are guilty of this- they allow the members to just type Credit to the Owner or CTO for short & in some cases the group owner themselves do the same. I have never agreed with this & still don't to this day. It is their choice to do how they want, but still- I don't agree with it. I prefer to be 'legal' & give credit where it's due.
Interestingly enough, some people will add watermarks or copyrights to scanned magazine pages, photos, manipulated graphics from photos, screen caps & even some go to the extent of even watermarking youtube videos or gifs they've ripped from the original source. I have also seen graphics where fans have used images that belong to a photographer & then © the graphic to themselves. This is all a BIG NO-NO.
If you are concerned about someone claiming your creation as theirs, there IS a way to watermark it (regardless if it's a tag, wallpaper, etc.), without infringing copyrights.Here's a tag I made using a photograph. Look at my watermark on it:
Now, obviously, the copyright needs to be clear & legible, like in my tag above. And THAT is being copyright compliant.;)
And of course, if you're using licensed images (meaning you have to purchase the image & have a legal license from the agency to use the image), you would include your license number in your watermark, like my example using my own exclusive commission:
Basically, you can NOT watermark or copyright the photograph, image, graphic, video, etc. as yours UNLESS it is YOUR ORIGINAL creation (meaning, NOT using any other source for your graphic, video, etc.) If it's a magazine scan... it is NOT yours. It still belongs to the publication you scanned it from. I hope this makes sense.
Now, a typical question that may be asked:
Can't I scan an image and put it online?
If you are not the original creator or copyright owner of the image, you cannot legally redistribute that image. Scanning an image and placing it online is redistribution and it is a breach of copyright. This includes images found in magazines, books, newspapers, greeting cards, calendars, catalogs, CD covers, brochures, etc.
Major companies such as Disney, Hallmark, Warner Brothers, etc., have very strict regulations about the redistribution of their property.
You cannot legally scan and redistribute photographs, cartoons, illustrations, drawings, etc., if they are protected by copyright. Furthermore, you can NOT be putting a copyright to yourself on the scan.
You cannot legally create a "fan site" using copyrighted photographs without the expressed permission of the photographer or copyright owner.
You cannot "freeze" an image from a television program, movie, or film for redistribution. The television program, movie, or film is protected by copyright as a complete entity and as individual frames.
It is prudent to assume that everything that is published has a restricted copyright. Check the source of the image you want to scan for its copyright restrictions.
The above information is very interesting when you think about it. Granted, it would take months (maybe years) to track down everyone to get permissions. However, what we can do is give PROPER credit to the owners. If it's a magazine page you scanned- watermark it with credits to the magazine/ photographer/ author of the article, but NOT to yourself. The same would apply if you make a graphic with an image- try to add the proper copyright to the owner & you can add modified/ colourised (or anything of this sort) by your name, but never ever use the © symbol next to your name unless the images, etc. (sources) used to create the item is ORIGINALLY yours as well.
In the event we honestly don't know the rightful owner to credit, we can choose to either not use the image (or whatever) in question or simply add that the copyright is currently unknown (& maybe try to find out who IS the owner in the meantime).
I know we can't change what a lot of the others do as far as posting without giving proper credits, but we can set a good example by using the practice above anywhere we share or post images, scans, etc.
I hope to see some of you taking this idea into practice with you. Feel free to pass this along.
Please do NOT copy-paste my post, but rather send people here to read it themselves.
Copy/ pasting my post would be plagiarism & that's another post for another day. LMAO
Thank you for reading.
Over the years, while starting up the original Dark Light site & forum (albeit, they were for my Street Team at the time), I had tried to be conscious of giving credits where credits are due & posting those credits as I knew of them.
Since then, I have continued that ideal- in 2007 when I rebuilt the revamped Dark-Light.us site, what once was HIM-Aholics on Ning and now what is HIM-Addicts on Spruz, even now with my blog, tags, etc.
One thing has bothered me with some HIM sites, communities & Facebook groups, regarding crediting- that is they have never striven to be copyright compliant or enforce members giving 'due credits' like they should. There are several groups & communities that are guilty of this- they allow the members to just type Credit to the Owner or CTO for short & in some cases the group owner themselves do the same. I have never agreed with this & still don't to this day. It is their choice to do how they want, but still- I don't agree with it. I prefer to be 'legal' & give credit where it's due.
Interestingly enough, some people will add watermarks or copyrights to scanned magazine pages, photos, manipulated graphics from photos, screen caps & even some go to the extent of even watermarking youtube videos or gifs they've ripped from the original source. I have also seen graphics where fans have used images that belong to a photographer & then © the graphic to themselves. This is all a BIG NO-NO.
If you are concerned about someone claiming your creation as theirs, there IS a way to watermark it (regardless if it's a tag, wallpaper, etc.), without infringing copyrights.Here's a tag I made using a photograph. Look at my watermark on it:
Now, obviously, the copyright needs to be clear & legible, like in my tag above. And THAT is being copyright compliant.;)
And of course, if you're using licensed images (meaning you have to purchase the image & have a legal license from the agency to use the image), you would include your license number in your watermark, like my example using my own exclusive commission:
Basically, you can NOT watermark or copyright the photograph, image, graphic, video, etc. as yours UNLESS it is YOUR ORIGINAL creation (meaning, NOT using any other source for your graphic, video, etc.) If it's a magazine scan... it is NOT yours. It still belongs to the publication you scanned it from. I hope this makes sense.
Now, a typical question that may be asked:
Can't I scan an image and put it online?
If you are not the original creator or copyright owner of the image, you cannot legally redistribute that image. Scanning an image and placing it online is redistribution and it is a breach of copyright. This includes images found in magazines, books, newspapers, greeting cards, calendars, catalogs, CD covers, brochures, etc.
Major companies such as Disney, Hallmark, Warner Brothers, etc., have very strict regulations about the redistribution of their property.
You cannot legally scan and redistribute photographs, cartoons, illustrations, drawings, etc., if they are protected by copyright. Furthermore, you can NOT be putting a copyright to yourself on the scan.
You cannot legally create a "fan site" using copyrighted photographs without the expressed permission of the photographer or copyright owner.
You cannot "freeze" an image from a television program, movie, or film for redistribution. The television program, movie, or film is protected by copyright as a complete entity and as individual frames.
It is prudent to assume that everything that is published has a restricted copyright. Check the source of the image you want to scan for its copyright restrictions.
The above information is very interesting when you think about it. Granted, it would take months (maybe years) to track down everyone to get permissions. However, what we can do is give PROPER credit to the owners. If it's a magazine page you scanned- watermark it with credits to the magazine/ photographer/ author of the article, but NOT to yourself. The same would apply if you make a graphic with an image- try to add the proper copyright to the owner & you can add modified/ colourised (or anything of this sort) by your name, but never ever use the © symbol next to your name unless the images, etc. (sources) used to create the item is ORIGINALLY yours as well.
In the event we honestly don't know the rightful owner to credit, we can choose to either not use the image (or whatever) in question or simply add that the copyright is currently unknown (& maybe try to find out who IS the owner in the meantime).
I know we can't change what a lot of the others do as far as posting without giving proper credits, but we can set a good example by using the practice above anywhere we share or post images, scans, etc.
I hope to see some of you taking this idea into practice with you. Feel free to pass this along.
Please do NOT copy-paste my post, but rather send people here to read it themselves.
Copy/ pasting my post would be plagiarism & that's another post for another day. LMAO
Thank you for reading.