Change in forum rules
To continue the theme of change in response to growth, we've also rewritten the forum rules. Social Knowledge, the parent company of The Royal Forums, has recently developed a set of Terms of Use, which can be found here:
http://www.theroyalforums.com/?page=terms
This has been used as the basis for the updated forum rules, which can be found here:
http://www.theroyalforums.com/?page=rules
Details and explanations of the rules can be found in a series of FAQs:
http://www.theroyalforums.com/?page=faq
All these pages can be reached by clicking on the appropriate link at the bottom of each forum page. You can also find links here:
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f14/royal-forums-rules-11134.html
We also have a thread in the Support and Feedback forum where our members can ask questions about the rules if there's something they don't understand:
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/f19/questions-about-new-rules-11135.html
Many of the moderators and administrators also have links to the forum rules in their signatures. Don't hesitate to PM one of the moderators or administrators if there's anything about the rules you'd like to discuss one-on-one.
Most of the rules haven't changed from the previous set. However, we do have one major change, which involves photo posting. Whenever a copyrighted photo is posted, the poster will be expected to have obtained
written permission from the copyright owner to post that photo, and the poster will have to add a line saying "Posted with permission from {copyright holder's name}." This isn't just a forum rule, it's the law. Members who post photos without written permission are running the risk of legal action from the copyright owner (the photographer, publisher, or photo agency) if a representative of that company sees one of their copyrighted photos on the site and demands proof of written permission. This applies to just about all photos taken by a professional photographer in the last 100 years. It doesn't matter where you find the photo - a photo agency website, a photographer's website, a book or magazine, yahoo, google, eBay, or your own private collection of magazine clippings and online photos. All these photos are copyrighted, and none of them may be posted directly into the threads unless you can prove that you have permission from the copyright holder to do so. This also applies to the non-royal-related threads in Members' Corner.
Since photos with agency or photographer watermarks are samples, which are never released to the public for their use with permission, from now on the moderators will be deleting all watermarked photos. We won't be policing the threads to demand proof that unwatermarked photos are being posted with the correct permission, but if a copyright owner challenges any of their photos on our site, the poster will be expected to produce a copy of the written permission or face the consequences from the copyright owner.
Links to photos on agency sites, newspaper or magazine pages, photo-hosting sites, etc., are perfectly fine. We expect that most of the photos in the future will be posted as links rather than images. Since we're expecting considerably fewer photos to be posted in the future, we're once more allowing direct attachments.
The moderation team understand that this will make the forum somewhat less user friendly, but unfortunately we don't have a choice about this. Copyright owners are becoming increasingly intolerant of having their property taken without compensation and posted in public forums, websites, and blogs, and several of them have threatened legal action against both the websites and the individuals who posted the photos. Our new copyright rules are intended to protect this forum and our members.
Elspeth
