Hi, Let's say I get wallpapers without copyrights on it or any links to any websites. Just clean photos. 1. Is it legal to place these wallpapers on my site if I allow it to be free downladed for all and i don't place my copyright on it? 2. Is it legal to place link to my site on such wallpapers? 3. What should be written in the bottom of my site? Hope any of u smart guys will answer me. Thanks in advance
No, it's not legal, even if you alter it in Photoshop! Photos and artwork are protected by copyright, whether or not there's a copyright notice on it. Never use, alter (create derivative works from), or claim that you created or own images without the owner's permission.
So it means that thousands of websites break the copyright laws. How come they are still online and have thousands of traffic?
Ok, lets say: I upload clean photos without copyright on it. What do I have to write in the bottom of my site which wouldn't breake any law? I saw one site: administration of xxxxxxxx.com is not responsible for any content on the site. I don't want to claim that i made any of the pictures. I just want to host it and just make it free to download.
Saying you're not responsible for any content on the site doesn't mean you're not legally responsible for the content on your site. If you upload something, you're responsible for that. Why are others online? Some because they actually own the images or licensed them, and others because they simply haven't been caught yet. Don't take that to mean you won't be though - a lot of people take their rights very seriously and go after anyone stealing their copyrighted material (including me, and I can tell you it's not that hard to find violators if the owner really wants to). You cannot host and let others download something you don't own or have rights / license to, whether or not you say you made them. And I don't know what you mean by "clean" and "without copyright on it" - the copyright holder doesn't have to include a watermark, copyright notice or anything else to be legally protected. Their work is protected when they create it automatically. Not being marked in some way does not mean you're allowed to use it, upload it, share it via downloads, etc. I'd suggest looking for a more legally sound site / business to run.
I know many examples of sites that are running for months or years. I just accidentaly found one more with 1500 ppl online atm and I can see quite many wallpapers which are also posted on their original owners' sites.
Good. And if you have proof that those site owners don't have the owner's permission in some way, then report it to the owner if you want to. No one's saying everyone gets caught. But setting up a business with the intention of violating the law is just stupid. You asked a question up front and were educated in a way that a lot of site owners aren't - they may not even realize they're illegally using images. What that means is that you have no excuse if and when you get caught if you choose to pursue it (and there's a public thread proving you knew what you were doing, which more than likely someone will manage to tie to your site if they choose to pursue you for infringement - meaning you really wouldn't have much of a defense). Remember this too - there's more to it than the risk of getting sued. That's not even very likely. What is more likely is that you'll get kicked off your hosting account with no backup, that you'll be booted out of the major search engines, and / or you'll get kicked off of any ad networks you use as putting ads on pages with infringing content often violates their own TOS. So for example, if you put Adsense on the page and even one person sees one image that's been used illegally, you can be reported to Adsense, and lose your entire Adsense account (you lose all ads on all sites you were running it on if they ban you - and I've had people banned through dmca complaints, so I know for a fact they do it - as do other networks). It's easy to hit a copyright violator where it hurts - their traffic and their source of income. You asked if it was legal. Unless you own the copyright or have the owner's permission, it's not. I'm not sure why you bothered asking, given that it seems you really don't care one way or the other.
As long as you don't have permission of the author or owner of the photos, you can not redistribute them, even if you do it for free. And a message in the footer will not change your responsibility...
Not only can you not redistribute it, but you have to have permission from the owner to use it period antineo.