Google Blogoscoped has a lot of questions concerning copyright laws as they relate to the internet and blogging. Good reading and it will help you think a bit before just wildly doing whatever. My philosophy is if you are not sure about using a pic or quote from another site then ask the site for permission. Always link or at least give credit to the original. If you ever get a cease and desist complaint/order simply comply the best you can. Fighting it may cost to much. Especially if you lose...
from Google Blogoscoped post:Copyright is complicated. Too many lines of gray. Especially in the digital world. ’I'll give this post to the public domain, so share it all you like. But it’s not always that easy.
Take images you put on your web page, for example. Maybe you made the photo with your digital camera. Maybe it’s a photo of a group of people. Are you allowed to publish it without asking anyone? Would it matter if you start charging for it? Would you need to ask all persons on the photo for a permission?
Let’s say you make a photo of a new painting. There’s not much else on the photo but the painting itself. The painting is copyrighted. What happens to your photo – who owns the copyright?
Let’s say the same painting is in the public domain according to the country’s laws. Who owns the copyright now? If you publish it, is everyone else allowed to re-publish it on their site without giving you credit?
(Or maybe our rule-of-thumb should be “do all you can get away with?”)
Quite a large blog post but a very good read. Check it out.
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