rgbstock
Question about legal matters (copyright)
1. Berenika14 April 2010, 11:34 GMT +02:00
There is one thing that troubles me - photos of books or for example dictionary -
standard copyright formula says that content (book) is protected and you do not have a right of reproduction of it , even partially.
Is a photo of dictionary, focused on open page, and one word - for example - love, hate, tolerance against copyright?
Those kind of photos are very popular as a stock photography ...
Can I post photo of this kind on rgb? I already have got one on sxc, but I'm not sure about this matters...
2. Zela14 April 2010, 12:24 GMT +02:00
Small details of book pages, art pieces like paintings, sculptures and architecture etc. are okay in most cases unless the object is known for a registered copyright.
3. debsch14 April 2010, 12:26 GMT +02:00
not sure if this applies globally, but in Australia I think the rule is 10% - you're allowed to copy 10% (or 1000 words whichever comes first). I'm a school teacher and we're reminded of this all the time when photocopying stuff.
SO... if the book consists of 10 pages then you would only be able to take a photo of one of the pages, if it is 100 pages then 10, etc...
(But I'm no expert.)
4. xymonau14 April 2010, 12:32 GMT +02:00
Obviously old books are okay if the copyright is finished in your country. The other thing is that the King James version of the bible is the only one that is not copyrighted. People sometimes forget that. I assume that the rules re photos would be the same as for the text.
5. jonfletch14 April 2010, 13:27 GMT +02:00
Following up on Debsch comment, it is the same (or similar) in the UK, but I thought it was only for personal use, e.g. to use for study. I am not sure about photographing and redistributing.
6. Berenika14 April 2010, 14:04 GMT +02:00
I'm afraid that 10% rule is only for non-commercial use..
In my country is one more rule - if I will open a dictionary , put on the dictionary rose and rose petals and then make a photo of this compostition focused on the word "love" in the dictionary it will be ok - because this is not a simple copy, it's creation, I'm adding my own invention to create new artefact - but with simple photo of page I still have got doubts...
7. xymonau14 April 2010, 17:05 GMT +02:00
It's best to err on the side of caution, but we will have to look into it. Because this is an international site, that also complicates things. What is legal here may not be there.
8. Berenika15 April 2010, 11:58 GMT +02:00
Yes, of course!! We have got already ongoing discussion on polish forum on rgb and few things were clarified, but law is different in different coutries... we have to be careful :-)
9. xymonau15 April 2010, 12:41 GMT +02:00
I think the real onus is on the downloaders. If they wish to use images commercially (within our terms of use), then they are responsible for ensuring the image is legal. I think if we aren't selling the images there is some difference for us offering them. I can't remember exactly, but this conversation was happening elsewhere, too.
The one that floored me recently was the group, "Men at Work" who were fined huge amounts for using one musical line in, "I come from a land down under". It was the tune of, "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree". Now that song is really old, and has been sung by kids here and around the world for years, and it was just one little section. I'll bet the group had no idea that it was still under copyright. Now they have to pay some music company a huge percentage of their profits for one little line of a whole song. I just thought that was a bit rough.
