Good Thursday morning. Let's start with my question.
While looking through some old papers I found one of the old postcards I had bought while visiting Graceland. I intended to scan it and put the picture in my Elvis lens. My husband is telling me that since the postcard is copyrighted that I can't put it in my lens. He says I need to contact Graceland and get permission.
Well, since that whole copyright thing is pretty much above my head---can I, or can't I scan it and put the picture of it on my lens? Thanks. (So many of the pictures I put in with my lenses I get from the internet, mostly from wikipedia---I don't even have a clue if this is ok, but if I don't get photos from the internet just where am I to get them to go along with my lenses??)
Now, I have been working to update lenses. Some of them I opened to see about the donations module (which last I checked is still MIA)
Here is the list of lenses that I updated:
Legos
Grandma's Christmas Wishlist
Crash! Book Review
WWJD for Kidz
Kansas Our First Lapbook
Elvis Presley
I am stopping here this week. I hope several will have input on my copyright question, as well as link up below (remember I am now allowing you to link directly to one or two of your lenses if you don't blog about squidoo.)
Sorry, but I agree with your husband. You need permission to use the postcard. I did a lens on coloring page copyrights, called Coloring pages and copyright, although it really doesn't address other images as much, but it does give an overview of copyright. Maybe check it out? it's my 3rd or 4th lens on the list....
ReplyDeleteThe only exception would be if an image was in the public domain, and I'm sure that anything having to do with Graceland would still be under the protection of copyright.
ReplyDeleteThat said, the sad truth is that copyrights are violated on the internet every single day, and unless the owner of said copyright is aware of the use and actively pursues the issue, nothing happens. I wouldn't take that as carte blanc to scan and use the image, but if you decided to do that I sincerely doubt Graceland would know and follow up, especially since the lens is a sort of advertisement telling people what a great experience the visit was. It's one of those gray areas ... technically not legal, practically not a huge issue, ultimately your personal judgement call.
I, myself, would probably contact Graceland and ask permission, or contact the publisher of the post card, as Graceland may not own the rights to the photograph.
No easy answers, sorry!
Good copyright question, Marsha, and I hope you get a lot of feedback for this one. Personally, and I am no expert... I feel sharing a photo of a postcard you receive will fall under fair use. Providing... you do not alter the image, sell the image, and so forth. It also helps in fair use defense to not show the entire object and/or to show a "thumbnail" version rather than a full-sized photo of the postcard. It's really a grey area, as Janelle mentioned.
ReplyDeleteI do not think you would be able to use it, unless they give you permission.
ReplyDeleteHere's a link that may be helpful to you. Especially the part about "fair use."
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2008/09/10/fair-use-of-photography-on-a-blog/
How old is it? If it's older than 1922 and printed in the US that's ok (oh, nevermind...Graceland. Yeah, scratch that...it wouldn't be that old).
ReplyDeleteYou might be able to get away with it if you include it with other items (maybe other Elvis related items). My thinking on that is that you can take a picture of a room that happens to have a painting in it, and that's ok, but if your picture is JUST of the painting, that breaks copyright. Not absolutely certain of that.
before reading the previous comments, i was gonna guess that since you bought the card, u coulda scanned it and used it. I was thinking since you bought it and all, it woulda been okay. I have bought alot of vintage cards and scanned them for my blog to share. Now I am wandering if thats even okay. I also use wikipedia on occassion andthe site called Photobucket, cause it's a photo sharing site. But now Im gonna go re-check somehow and find out if thats even okay. It'll be hard to only write on topics and share pics that we take ourselves so I am hopeing that wikipedia and photobucket are okay to share. lol. goodluck with finding the correct answer to this!
ReplyDeleteHi there, re your question about royalty free images: "...but if I don't get photos from the internet just where am I to get them to go along with my lenses??"
ReplyDeleteYou can buy the rights to use images on your blogs and squidoos from places like Fotolia and BigStock, which I did for years.
But I now have bought the PLR rights to bundle and sell a huge set of images you can get and use on all your online stuff here:
http://squidoo.com/4830-graphics-clip-art-only-17-dollars
and 1,500 Christmas graphics here:
http://www.squidoo.com/vintage-christmas-clip-art
Buying image PLR bundles like this is really the only way to make sure you have images on hand in every conceivable subject that you can use online, in ebooks etc without having to worry about copyright - anything else is just too risky!
BTW - I'd be happy to swap you either of these sets of graphics for one of your Squidoo lenses for sale.
Helene Malmsio
This may help as it also has links to resources (like explanatory videos and the US copyright office) you may find useful.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.squidoo.com/finding-and-using-public-domain-and-royalty-free-images-and-clip-art-pictures