Celeb pictures

I was gonna do a celeb picture site but worried about the copyrights, I have emailed some of the biggest celeb pics sites on the net and asked them if they have ran into problems and most said they havent and some said they have been contacted and asked to remove some pics and thats it.

Should I do one? Should I be worried? How many celeb pic sites actually get contacted? How many fan sites actually get contacted? Is it really something to worry about, surely if it was it would be a common problem yet it doesn't seem to be and fansites are made and sold daily etc, most sites sold on here and other places seem to have some things on them that could be copyrighted, if I put a msg at bottom of every page saying 'If anything is copyrighted please contact me with proof and I will remove them, this site is simply a fan site and not affiliated or endorsed by anyone, just a fan site made by a fan of these women with images freely available on the net and so considered freely available to use' you think that will be alright?

Surely the big famous celeb sites out there that gets millions of hits a day wouldnt be around still if it was a big problem? And more would be said about creating fan sites with galleries etc? Seems a lot of sites have things you could be worried about if you wanna over worry about it, is it just scaremongering? As long as you avoid pics that have copyrighted messages on them which most celeb sites do then....?

 

as long as you maintain a good image for the celebrities and you don't use the pics to earn money I guess you are ok

 

I agree about the first bit but every celeb sites has ads on it pretty much and again I go back to my point in my original post about it not seeming to be a big problem by all accounts.

As long as you're not selling the images I still dont see how if you have ads on the site around the images thats not ok? The images aren't themselves making the money per say as if you were selling them.

Seems to be its a big deal about nothing in the context of things, I know people who ran/run celeb sites and have never been contacted but whenever I see one being sold on a site people make a big deal about the pics, seems an extremely slim chance you will get contacted and even then chances are you will just be asked to remove them.

I have ran fan sites before and never been contacted over images but then I never gave it much thought then, if people start worrying about that they should worry about EVERY image on there design or site or blog then nothing will get posted ever if people over worry like that as everything is copyrighted pic wise, like your av probably is for example.

Way I see it as long as the pic doesnt have a copyright message on it and you have a message at bottom of the page it's no real harm.

 

I've created sites for a few friends who run such sites, and I've found that for the most part, you only get problems from the big magazines whose pictures you are using. Since they paid a hefty price for those pictures, they tend to get a little guarded about them, especially if the pictures are immensely popular at the moment. When it comes to older pictures, they don't really care, because magazines live and die by getting photos of celebs first before anyone else, so having them pop up on a site cuts into their profits. Also, the other potential problem is from the photographers themselves. Like the magazines, since they have invested heavily in these photos, photographers tend to be guarded about them. But as with most, all you'll get is a "take it down" email. If you take it down promptly, there is no problem. Celebrities themselves, as long as you don't go around photoshopping naked bodies onto their heads, love the publicity you give them, so you won't get problems from them.

 

Hey Jack,

Thats the way I see things, and normally photographers copyright there pics anyway with a msg on them if they are really worried about people using them as thats normally enough to disrupt someone from doing it.

Its just every time I see a celeb gallery type site being sold everyone always rounds on about the copyrights and I just think, if it was a big problem there wouldnt be so many estabalished celeb sites out there (Like superiorpics.com and more would be made of celeb fan sites with pics on them etc) surely? And at worse if someone does have a prob then an email to take them down as per the message I would put on the site would be enough anyway but generally it doesn't seem to matter really and yet people seem to scaremonger about it a lot.

 

You know how it is -- some people take risks, others avoid them. To each his own.

 

We own and operate a few dozen such websites, but have not had a single issue. That does not tell anything about what could happen tomorrow though.

 

I run a couple celebrity related websites. I will share my experiences so others can know what to expect. I have had my sites for ~ 12 months.

I have received 2 emails. One from a model who said she was now a professional and nicely asked me to remove her images. I did so, and let her know where I found them

I also once received an email from Playboy. They asked that I remove a gallery. I did and replied for them to let me know if they wanted anything else removed. I was quite surprised never to hear back.

(EDIT NOTE: Those playboy images were hosted by imagevenue.com and I had the thumnails on my site. So when I replied to Playboy, I let them know that I did not host any of their images on my servers, and I had not uploaded them either, and therefore could not remove them, although I would remove my links to those images from my site.)

Lastly, certain magazines as stated are very protective of their photos. Ironically, one of those magazines links to my site and their own photos? Go figure.

If you use a wide array of photos from various sources, it would seem to me that no single letter would negatively impact your site. You must always judge your own risk, but I think many here are too fearful of using celebrity images.

 

Agreed.

It's funny because it seems pretty much all website owners of celeb sites don't seem to have problems really and it's only people who have never ran one that worry about nothing.

While it's true pictures are copyrighted seems to me there is still nothing to worry about at all really as long as you avoid ones with copyrighted messages on them or magazine pics as said.

If people worried about pics being copyrighted then nearly every site that gets sold here has copyright violations, websites would mainly be text based unles you actually took the picture, no fansites, no big celeb sites etc and hell people would even worry about there avatars being copyrighted, so while on paper they are owned by someone it still seems there is nothing to worry about at all really and at worse you will simply just get asked to remove some pics and even then they need to give you proof they took the pic really (Although I wouldnt argue, I would justtake them off but anyone could go around claiming they own the rights), having spoken to people and people who own large celeb based sites seems a worry over nothing.

Thanks for the replies

 

This page is interesting for many reasons related to this topic:

http://www.chillingeffects.org/notice.cgi?sID=898

 

Offtopic question: Is there any profit on doing celebrity fan sites? Thanks.

 

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