Is it legal to copy other people's photos ?

[Artemii1966]

Hello! =) I'm trying to understand the issue .
Online you can stumble upon a number of different portals, desktop wallpaper . These pictures are in the public domain. I can load any in any format. Let's say I open a small shop and order a poster of the shop. then take some of these oboin , bar, cut out a piece , say the horizon, and pour to your web site .
Whether the action is a violation of copyright? After all, the picture is in the public domain and I take only a piece of the whole picture. I do not make money on the picture ( ie, I do not sell the picture .)Whether the right of the action to make a complaint ? If so, who? Will it be a violation of the law ?
Thanks in advance if anyone can help to understand this :)

[paulm]

Hi Mate

Although we deal with this kind of stuff every day, what I’m about to say is general commentary and is not meant to constitute professional advice - which you should seek from your own legal advisors.

Copyright law is very clear on some issues and not so on others.

In simple terms, the copyright of any piece of ‘art’, in whole or in part, resides with the creator, and unless they specifically provide you with written consent to use it - you could be in deep poo by using it ‘unauthorised’. The consent to use usually comes with defined terms and conditions such as how and in what form you can use it and, importantly, how much you should pay the creator for using it.

Hypothetically, if the original owner of an image can prove that the image is theirs ( not too hard for a picture ) and someone uses it, in whole or in part, without consent, it is likely that such someone has breached the owner's copyright.

As I’ve said – this comment is NOT meant to constitute professional advice and you should seek such from your legal advisors.

Hope this helps.

Paul MAc

[Neo]

Good answer Paul.

But Artemii1, why ask this question on a MotoTrials forum???

Best of balance.
Neo

[PA]

He is a spammer. He is registered on 23 different as a spammer. Time for me to hit the Ban Button.

[Neo]

Good work PA

[PA]

We had another spammer register 3 new logins and posted a spam message from each account. It's a never ending battle.

[Bill_Guthrie]

Paul Mac is absolulty right:

Can youI copy material off the internet without seeking permission?

No.

If you copy material off the internet without permission you may be infringing the rights of a copyright owner. It is a common misconception that once material is posted to the internet it can be freely copied: this is not the case.

The Act gives the copyright owners of material on the internet certain exclusive rights. These include:

• the right to reproduce the material eg: print the material or save it onto a disk;
and
• the right to communicate the material to the public eg: post the material on a
website.

This means that you may be infringing the rights of a copyright owner if you:

• print material from a website;
• cut and paste material from another site onto your website;
• save material from a website on your hard drive or on a disk; or
• make internet material available to other users via email or an Intranet system.

The owner may obfuscate these rights by inviting a download.

Will you be prosecuted - it would generally be dependant if there was any loss to a party. Costs a lot of money to prosecute an issue

This is not to be taken as legal advice - if you are in trouble talk to someone.


Bill

[Neo]

Hey Bill,

I think this guy is (was) only in trouble with PA
Nice reponse though

All the best.
Neo