Questions about the new rules

**Elspeth** · #1 10-23-2006, 01:32 AM

We have an updated set of rules; you can find a link to the rules here:

Royal Forums rules

This thread is for any questions you have about the new rules, particularly the rules about copyright. Feel free to ask about anything that doesn't seem to be clear.

crisiñaki · #2 10-24-2006, 01:06 AM

I have two questions from the new posting rule:

1. the watermarked pics are to be posted as links?
for example:
http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/7224...F3EA9A178B7582
or simply not be posted at all?

2. I have access account to several agencies which I pay bucks for, can't I post those pics either?

Thanks for your answers

HRH Mims · #3 10-24-2006, 09:25 AM

I have question too. In some photoagencies you simply can't provide link (f.e. seegerpress, profimedia) so may I upload these pictures to my photobucket and then simply post link to picture, or to whole album?
Thank you in advance!

Avalon · #4 10-24-2006, 09:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mims111

I have question too. In some photoagencies you simply can't provide link (f.e. seegerpress, profimedia) so may I upload these pictures to my photobucket and then simply post link to picture, or to whole album?
Thank you in advance!

You can upload links to your private account and post the link to it or to the whole album.

HRH Mims · #5 10-24-2006, 09:47 AM

thank you Avalon for your reply!

It's clear for me now.

**Elspeth** · #6 10-24-2006, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by crisiñaki

I have two questions from the new posting rule:

1. the watermarked pics are to be posted as links?
for example:
http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/7224...F3EA9A178B7582
or simply not be posted at all?

2. I have access account to several agencies which I pay bucks for, can't I post those pics either?

Thanks for your answers

1. Yes, you can post watermarked photos as links. You can post anything as links as long as the linked page doesn't contain stuff that's obscene, sexually explicit, vulgar, threatening, harassing, abusive, or off-topic. It's perfectly fine to post them as links to the photo agency page where you found them. As far as we're concerned, you can post links to watermarked photos in your album at a photo-hosting site; however, just be aware that if someone from a photo agency happens to be browsing our threads and sees those links, you may be in trouble as a member of that photo-hosting site for having illegal photos in your albums there. The important thing from our perspective is that we shouldn't have the photos themselves on our threads.

2. It depends on the agreement between you and the agency. If you're paying for access to unwatermarked photos which you can post anywhere on the web, then you can post your photos here. If your access is more restricted and allows you to take their photos for your personal use only, then I doubt your agreement would include the abilty to post the photos at a public board like this.

Your best bet here is to ask the agencies by e-mail whether you can post their photos on a public-access discussion board. If they say you can, then you should print out a copy of that permission and keep it somewhere safe, because you may need it in the future if someone from the agency sees your photos here and challenges your right to post them. We've had a couple of cases in the last few months where a photo agency has threatened legal action against individual posters as well as against TRF if we didn't remove all the agency's photos from our threads, and we're hearing similar stories from proprietors of other discussion forums, so this is something you're going to need to be very sure about before you post those photos.

**Elspeth** · #7 10-24-2006, 11:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mims111

I have question too. In some photoagencies you simply can't provide link (f.e. seegerpress, profimedia) so may I upload these pictures to my photobucket and then simply post link to picture, or to whole album?
Thank you in advance!

Yes, you can certainly do that as far as we're concerned. However, just so you're aware of the potential risk: if you don't have permission from the agencies to take their photos to put in your Photobucket album, then you may be running a risk as a member of Photobucket (rather than as a member of the Royal Forums) if someone from one of those agencies is checking our threads. However, that's between you, the agency, and Photobucket; as long as the photos themselves aren't on our threads, we aren't in the business of policing our members' Photobucket albums.

HRH Mims · #8 10-24-2006, 11:30 AM

Ok Thank you Elspeth!

Also I have one more question: what about scans?
from old magazines, books etc?

**Elspeth** · #9 10-24-2006, 11:51 AM

Unless you have permission from the photographer or the book publisher, you can't post scans directly into the threads. Buying a copy of a book or magazine doesn't mean you own the copyright to the photos. The same rule applies to scans as to watermarked photos - if you want to add them to a photo album at Photobucket or wherever, you're welcome to post a link to the individual photo or the album.

crisiñaki · #10 10-24-2006, 03:18 PM

Thanks Elspeth for the answer!

**Elspeth** · #11 10-24-2006, 03:23 PM

You're welcome. Let us know what sort of feedback you get from the photo agencies because that might be useful for the other posters in the same situation.

**JessRulz** · #12 10-25-2006, 06:13 AM

I have a quick question about the new rules:
Each week, I post the new magazine covers of New Idea and Woman's Day in the Mary on Magazine Covers thread, if they have Mary, Fred or Christian on them.
Am I still allowed to do this? Or do I have to get permission from the two magazines?? I don't actually go to the New Idea site to get the image, each week I get sent a newsletter from them as part of my NI membership.
And is it the same with newspaper covers as well??

Thanks in advance.

**Warren** · #13 10-25-2006, 08:44 AM

The legal advice the site owner has received is that scans of magazine and newspaper covers fall into the same "copyright infringement" category.

If a pic, an image or a scan is hosted in a private photo account such as Photobucket and linked to the Forums via url, any dispute over copyright is between the member, Photobucket and the Photo Agency or Publishing House.

Because of the legal threats the Forums has recently received, and demands for removal of pictures ("or else"), the Forums is removing itself as the hosting site so that we are not liable for any potential copyright infringements, threats or demands.

For a demonstration of the effect the Photo Agencies can have on a website after bringing their legal weight to bear, here's an example. Black, and largely blank.

**Elspeth** · #14 10-25-2006, 12:50 PM

You do have the option of posting links to the magazine website page where the covers are located. That would be perfectly legal. My suspicion is that the magazines aren't going to give permission for the scans of their actual covers to be posted here, but you never know. It doesn't hurt to ask, and the worst they could do is to refuse, and then at least you'll know where you are.

**JessRulz** · #15 10-25-2006, 05:45 PM

Thanks Warren & Elspeth!
I'll see if I can email the two magazines and ask them if I can post the covers or not

**Tosca** · #16 10-26-2006, 10:40 AM

Sorry folks, but there are few things I do not understand, especially about scans from mags.

I mean, when I buy a mag, I'm supposed not to be the only person to read that copy of the mag, but that other members of my family also read it. Then I may lend my copy of the mag or of a book to a friend or neighbour, so there are other people who take advantages of reading articles or viewing pictures from a single mag/book I bought. Is this illegal? If so they should ask libraries to shut down !

So when I scan an article/picture then I post it on the forums, IMO I act as if I lend my copy of the mag/book to other people...