On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags, Copyright Issues, and Street Shots
Hotlinking and copyright issues in a nutshell and how they apply on LHC.
Hotlinking:
When you insert a picture-link with the [IMG] tags into a post, it causes traffic for the site it is hosted at. This uses their bandwith every single time the forum-page containing the image is loaded/viewed by someone. Which can cause costs for the hosting-site and is illegal.
Exceptions are image-hosting sites which offer space and bandwidth to upload images as a service. Like flickr, photobucket or ImageShack just to name a few.
Copyright issues:
To use a picture you have not taken yourself without having permission, violates the copyrights the photographer owns on the picture. Saving it on a computer or uploading it online somewhere else is illegal. As is inserting it on a forum using the [IMG] tags.
There are a few legal exceptions when it is not illegal to use a foreign picture. Like fairshare, public domain, expired copyrights, written permissions, lol-cats etc.
On LHC
The "insert image" button in forum-posts and blogs is meant for pictures you have taken yourself. They can either be hosted in an album here or on a photo-hosting site.
In case you want to show a copyrighted picture you have not taken yourself, please just post a link to it and refrain from uploading it to an album on LHC.
We also, in the sense of fairness, promote a "no nipples, buttcracks, or pubes" rule for all genders.
As a courtesy to others and in acknowledgement of the fact that many members here would object to people taking pictures of them and posting them online without permission, we likewise ask that no one post photos of others without their explicit consent. This is especially true for photos typically known as "street shots" that appear taken without the subjects having been made aware.
Thank you! :flower:
Re: On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags and Copyright Issues
Hi, I'm not comprehending about this message. This is my own photo taken from my Canon digital camera. It's me. I should reformat it somehow?
Re: On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags and Copyright Issues
Gvnagitlvgei, you're fine. It's your picture, it's within guidelines.
Flaxen, does posting a link definitely not steal bandwidth? I clicked on a link to a picture someone around here posted, recently, and it took me to a webpage the owner of the linked website set up scolding people for hotlinking. But it was definitely a link I clicked on, not a picture with IMG tags. It sort of confused me!
Re: On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags and Copyright Issues
Viki, maybe I can answer that one-- a lot of sites will make it so that if you try to grab the URL directly to the image, it'll link you somewhere else-- somewhat like what Flickr does depending on the settings of the person who put up the image, taking you to a blank picture, or perhaps a site scolding you for hotlinking.
Hotlinking is when you use their link inside image tags, causing the remotely-hosted image to be shown on another website each time that post/part of the site is viewed, yoinking bandwidth... posting the URL directly to a photo is different, and only loads up the image when that link is clicked on. The amount of bandwidth taken is much higher if you're putting the link inside image tags since it loads up *every time* it's accessed. I hope that explains it properly?
Re: On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags and Copyright Issues
I think I get it. Webspace is so confusing sometimes!
Re: On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags and Copyright Issues
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Flaxen
When you use the properties of a picture from its home site with the [IMG] tags, you steal their bandwidth every time the picture appears at the remote site (here). It's illegal. In addition, to re-post a picture you have not taken violates the copyrights the photographer owns on the picture. It's also illegal.
The "insert image" button is for pictures you have taken yourself (or have written permission from the photographer to re-post) and which are hosted in space your internet provider gives you, at one of the free hosting sites like Photobucket, or from an album here. For any other picture you want folks to see, please post just the link. Thank you! :flower:
For real? Because then your own avatar is a violation of these forum rules.
Also, I own a website... so if I host pics on it and post them here then I am stealing my own bandwidth?
I assume this goes for person albums, as well?
Re: On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags and Copyright Issues
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Shiva
For real? Because then your own avatar is a violation of these forum rules
The avatar is from Wikipedia (from the link in Flaxen's siggy). On the site it says that it is in the "public domain" which means you are free to copy it as long as you give attribution. For all intents and purposes, this would count as "written permission."
Re: On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags and Copyright Issues
Wikipedia is an editable website. Anybody could log in there and write whatever they feel like writing.
Re: On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags and Copyright Issues
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Shiva
Wikipedia is an editable website. Anybody could log in there and write whatever they feel like writing.
That's true. When we read something, it's easy to forget that someone else wrote it (be it a textbook or a poster or Wikipedia). Copyright of old paintings has been in the news fairly recently (here). I'm not an expert in copyrights, but most of the time when people talk about 'fair use' or 'public domain' images of two-dimensional works of public domain art, they cite this US court case - here - as precedent. The case involved applying UK law, but I didn't get a chance to look up specifics. So, it's being contested, but so far, it's legal in the US in this specific type of case.
Re: On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags and Copyright Issues
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Gvnagitlvgei
Hi, I'm not comprehending about this message. This is my own photo taken from my Canon digital camera. It's me. I should reformat it somehow?
It only refers to using other people's work. You own all the rights to any picture you take, and you may post it wherever you like. :smile:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
SimplyViki
Flaxen, does posting a link definitely not steal bandwidth? I clicked on a link to a picture someone around here posted, recently, and it took me to a webpage the owner of the linked website set up scolding people for hotlinking. But it was definitely a link I clicked on, not a picture with IMG tags. It sort of confused me!
Use? Yes. But steal? No. A link takes you to a website where the bandwidth is used as it is intended. The webmaster pays each month, like we all do, and his website gets traffic. You look around. If he has nice pictures on the site, all the credit is his. Maybe that's the only place he wants his pictures posted. That is his right. Hotlinking redistributes the pictures and violates that right.
I read a humorous way of describing the situation. "You may give a person directions to the museum, but you may not steal its art." (unknown) :lol:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Shiva
For real? Because then your own avatar is a violation of these forum rules.
For real. And no, my avatar doesn't violate copyright because it was published before 1923, and the copyright has expired.
Quote:
Also, I own a website... so if I host pics on it and post them here then I am stealing my own bandwidth?
Not if you give yourself permission. :p
Quote:
I assume this goes for person albums, as well?
Yes it does. :agree: