Recently I received an email from the creator of one of the images I use here, asking me to take it down. I did so, immediately, and replied with an apology, to which he responded generously.
I assume it's true of more bloggers than me: images are so freely available online (I use google images, searching based on whatever word or phrase I think might be fruitful) that we forget they have authors. Drag, drop, done. There was a time I'd put some sort of attribution under the image, but over time I got lazy. Nor would such attribution always be satisfactory, I'd guess.
Because my readership is somewhere south of HuffPo or The Dish, I implicitly relied on anonymity. Hearing from the artist was, therefore, a surprise, and a reminder I need to be more careful. I enjoy the process of looking for and selecting the perfect title images for my posts: I amuse myself with visual pun-itry, congratulate myself on my wit. (And why shouldn't I? No one else does!)
Bad habits being hard to break, and good ones hard to maintain, it might take a while to be consistent; but I'll try to resume applying attribution for those images not clearly in the public domain, or whose origins aren't self-evident. Meanwhile, I apologize to any and all talented people whose work I've appropriated here. All I can say is I haven't meant to offend, and I make zero profit from it.
Well Played Sid,
ReplyDeleteYou STOLE(try "Using" the Mona Lisa and see what happens)ARTISTIC CONTENT, a Federal Beef BTW, and promise to "Be more Careful"...
When I had MY award-winning Blog, I didn't use anythang without the express, written, consent of Major League Baseball.
OK, except for that Hemmingway short story I tried to pawn as my own.
You know, the one where the Dude's tryin to talk his chick into having an A-word, and she says, "PleasePleasePleasePleasePleasePleasePleasePleasePleasePlease Stop Talking"
Bet you can't name it.
Without Googling, Yahooing, or Binging.
You didn't think we Tea-Baggers read Great Literature, did you.
Frank "Papa" Drackman
Profit doesn't matter, however fair use does apply. If you use an image like the one above to illustrate a point you are making, it probably falls under fair use. Especially if it is not full size. It is polite to link back to the original. I usually make the image a link to the original . Your blogging software won't let me show an example, but it's pretty straightforward.
ReplyDeleteWhat is probably not fair use is including the entire Tom Tomorrow comic in a post. You'd be better off putting the first few frames or an unreadable version and then linking directly to their website.
INAL but I've researched this subject for my own blogs.
Thanks. Hadn't thought about Tom Tomorrow, since it's obvious what the source is.
ReplyDeleteDon't want you to thrown an embo Sid...
ReplyDeleteit's "Hills like White Elephants" from the 1930's, or as you call it,
"The Good Old Days"
Seriously, when FDR was rolling into his 4th year, he probably blamed Bush too...
Frank
Sid, wikimedia is a good source for images that are 'free' to use (don't forget attribution) as is sxc.hu
ReplyDeleteYou're also free to use images created by any government office (again with proper attribution) and you can find a bunch at usa.gov or check this site out: http://www.dotgovwatch.com/?/archives/8-The-Best-Copyright-Free-Photo-Libraries.html
Good stuff. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI took down the pic even though I credited it to the owner (not necessarily the artist, 123 Greetings) If the artist doesn't like the exposure he gets from 1500 to 2000 hits a day, far be it from me to force him to take it.
ReplyDelete