Hi everyone, I just wondered if anyone has come across this website www.officialpsds.com which offers psds of famous Rnb and hip hop music artists and celebrities in a cut out form ie without their backgrounds for use on websites on the internet and i just wanted to know if you can legally use these images on a website or can you be sued for using these images of famous music artists? Is there any legal difference between using the whole photo of a famous person and a cut out which has been extracted from its background? Any help offered will be greatly received. Many thanks.
Hi there, I have had a good look at them and havent got a clue which source they came from. And no one on the website itself is respondning to the emails i have sent them and so im not sure whether i can legally use these images or not. Many thanks.
If the owner of that site is not replying, you can use those pics with a disclaimer notice stating that your content is copyrighted by its owners so if any he/she might contact you to remove or credit such work properly. ·
It seems they want you to use them on your sites with a credit back, like this one: http://www.psdspy.com/
I order to know whether you can legally use them you would first need to determine who holds the copyright of the original images that the cut-outs were made from. The fact that the owner of the site does not respond to your requests does not give you rights that you would otherwise not have. The fact that the original images were used in ads or magazines also gives you no rights. The magazines paid somebody to use those images. Unless the original copyright holder made or authorized the making of the psd cut-outs, those images already infringe on copyright. Your use of them would also be illegal. Whether you would get caught or sued depends, but no suggestion given to you in this thread so far would give you any actual legal protection.
Hi Bluegrass special, Your words and explanation echoes what i have been thinking all along and this is why i need to find out who owns the copyright for the original photos that these psds were extracted from but the question is how do i do this? Is there a website where i can submit these images to find out who owns the copyright of the originals? As if possible i would like to seek permission to use these images. Any suggestions would be most welcome. Many thanks.
There may not be a way to determine who the copyright holder is. If the original photo actually had the copyright registered, I'm sure there are services that will do a search. But they are very expensive and do not guarantee results.
Thanks Bluegrass special, For all your advice and information. I think i will try and do an online search myself to determine who owns the copyright to these images as this is the only was i will be able to obtain permission to use them. Many thanks.