Hi, I'm trying to find some public domain images of various celebrities. Lots of sites say that the images they host are public domain. However, a few images that they use have copyright notices stamped on them. How can I find out whether or not a picture really is public domain? Are there any large catalogs of freely distributable celebrity public domain images? Thanks, fcmisc.
The answer is it is very difficult to find out. I know some sites publish these images and write a disclaimer to the effect "whilst every effort has been made to ensure the images on this site are not protected by copyright, in the rare event that a copyrighted image is published the copyright holder is invited to contact us and we will remove it". Something like that. Although it isn't a cast-iron defence, it should do the trick in most cases.
Write down the source of the images and in case of a lawsuit tell them the URL and that you didn't have any malicious intent since you didn't know better. If they are human they drop their case.
All images have an automatic copyright - assume they not public domain - especially celebrity images. No disclaimer will prevent the copyright holder from demanding a usage fee - which they get to set (can be thousands per image). Many people incorrectly believe that if they find an image on the web which doesn't say "copyright" it is public domain. I would be very careful in trusting the source - you are legally responsible for all images on your site - claiming you "were told it way ok" doesn't get you off the hook for paying damages. The celebrity usually doesn't own rights to a photo, the photographer does.
As mjewel pointed out, all images are copyrighted as soon as they are created. Only the person or company that created the image can place it in the public domain. Also, images created by federal government employees in the course of their work are automatically in the public domain (but those are unlikely to include the kind you are looking for, unless you are including astronauts, park rangers and other government employees as celebrities). It seems unlikely. There are many collections of celebrity photos out there that are simply images "collected" from all over the web (just head over to the BST forum and you are likely to find one or two such collections for sale). Not only do those collections infringe on the copyright of numerous photographers who make their living selling their photos, they put you in legal jeopardy. In the U.S., if you unlawfully use images for which the copyright has been registered, you can be liable for statutory damages up to $150,000. Getty Images and other stock photography suppliers actively search the web for their images, and if they find you are using one of theirs without a license will send you a nice bill for several thousand dollars - per image. The kind of disclaimer that CountryBoy suggests might work if you "borrow" an image from an amateur photographer, but if you steal from the professionals, you'll just make their attorneys laugh. If you want legitimate celebrity photographs, you have several options: - purchase a license from Getty Images, X17, or other stock photography sites - license photos directly from photographers via their web sites or flickr (note that most flickr photos are NOT in the public domain) - take photos yourself
Not necessarily. In response to the posters question, It lies in the Digital Millenium Recording Act of 2004. Google it for answers. Not all images on the web are copyrighted. And if they are not they are free to use. Be careful of digital watermarks.
Anyone can say "google it" - but an image has an automatic copyright when taken (meaning there is no formal process required). The owner of the image can donate the work to the public domain and a copyright can expire, but as far as what the poster was requesting - your answer adds nothing of value. You also don't need to worry about digital watermarks on images that are really pubic domain.
Um, no I didn't - it's now apparent you don't have any idea of what you are posting about. Google it!