Is it okay to post images that are, assuming, copyrighted onto blogs? I mean, it's for personal entertainment, not for selling, would that still be against the law?
honestly the worst thing would happen is that they'd contact you and ask you to remove it. but yes, it may be illegal... unless it falls under fair use.
yeah, they did. they asked me to remove any images with their byline on it. so another question: what if I remove the byline, would I still be able to use it? because they have asked me to remove some images that I don't think they even own, since they did not put their logo on it. this is ridiculous. it's like if you take that same picture as the copyrighted image, it will still be copyrighted just because it looks like it? oh, and another question: if I remove the pictures, I would still be able to put a link to the picture, right? just not the picture itself. (ie: www.url.com/asdf.jpg)
hotlinking is not a good idea. not only is it rude but they could change the image they serve your visitors-- all of the sudden you might find you have porn on your page or THIS SITE IS STEALING IMAGES FROM [their site] or something. if they honestly own the copyright to the images, removing their watermark does not allow you to legally use it. it's quite possible they don't own the copyright to it and that they wouldn't pursue this beyond asking you to take it down... but that's really up to you. even if they don't sue, you can really develop a bad reputation on your sites for stealing content.
ugh. this is so unfair! I got the image from another blog and I'm the one targeted, yet I've only had my blog up for like what, 4 months... I guess there's not a whole lot I can do... life is unfair sometimes
It's not unfair. It's just like speeding. We all do it, and occassionally we get caught while other cars go screaming by and who you rant "but what about all those guys!" Remove the image, you've had 4 months use of it. Apologise and move on.
? I only posted it yesterday in a blog entry, and they came rushing in. But after seeing the response disgust made, I removed them and pointed out the sites that I got the images from.
Ouch. Sounds like you may be making more enemies online by ratting out the first. Attribution and permission for photos is as necessary as it is for articles and other web material. Show yourself to be a good netizen by following generally accepted rules and practices.
Just because someone else has stolen an image they don't have rights to does not mean that you should also steal it! Regardless of the type of site you have, be it a blog or regular website, don't post images you do not have the legal right to use. Take your own photos or purchase the rights from one of the microstock agenecies, or if you must use someone else's image get permission first, and not after you have already posted it. Of course, if a photo is newsworthy, you might just want to comment on the article and link to the news site where the article and image is.
No matter what you call it [stole, borrowed, or just innocently using] look at this from your own property side. I stole your car... I borrowed your car without permission... I just innocently used your car without your permission... You'd be OK with that?
Check out sxc.hu. It's a stock site that's free. But don't just go taking every image on there and using it, because most of them still have attached licenses that require you to get permission from the copyright owner or to at least let them know where/what it's being used for. They do have some that don't require anything though, which is always nice. Plus, all the owners of the images have accounts, everyone is in one place, so it's fairly easy to find a photo you like and then just shoot them off a quick message to ask for permission.