Monkeyboy — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:53:34 +0000

Cool, thanks for the feedback guys, it's given some good info to work with

Megan — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 14:08:06 +0000

Samji;214145 wrote: Generally, speaking though use of content for educational or informative use qualifies as fair use under most international copyrights.

This is not true. When I worked in distance ed developing online courses we had to get permission for everything we used. There is a small distinction here - if a prof is using something in a powerpoint show for a course (not downloadable or share-able) it is fair use. If you are publishing something in a medium where it can be reproduced then you do need to get permission. Okay, I should say that this applies to Canada and the US, not necessarily the UK (although their laws are probably very similar)

That said, there are a few other issues for your particular project:

Copyright expires after a certain amount of time (I think after 60-100 years). If you find older images then they are probably fair game
Since you are a small personal project, people will most likely not have a problem givng you permission for stuff
Unless they are a big organization. In that case you can probably count on them charging you - often a lot of money.
In all probabilities, the worst that could happen is that somebody finds your content and asks you to take it down. You take it down, everyone is happy. Somebody would have to be a right bastard to sue you for that without even contacting you first. There are tons of sites out there with copyrighted material on there that never get done for it. It would be more of a problem if your site got popular or well known and started making some money.

Asking and getting permisison all depends on who you are aksing. Firstly, you need to be asking the people who actually own the copyright and not somebody who took it from another website. Individuals and smaller groups or companies are usually fine with personal/educational use. Bigger companies will want you to pay. Government content is often free, except for some of the larger museums.

It is usually best ot credit the owner next to the image on the actual page rather than hiding it in an alt text. That's not really what the alt attribute is for anyway (it's an alternative for the image, not more descriptive information).

FrankR — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 19:18:32 +0000

You need to become familiar with various copyright laws and treaties. Looking through the Wikipedia policies are a great place to start. You might actually consider going to copyright course for authors at a local or university library. There is a lot of material to help you understand the rules. In general, you are not allowed to use other people's work or images without either an explicit license or a specific fair use exception.

When in doubt, do not use the images. Even if you do not get sued, you might get invoiced!

Frank

Samji — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 18:56:07 +0000

A good place to find royalty-free content is Creative Commons.

It features options to search for CC-licenced content with a few popular search engines / web directories such as Google.

On a quick search for Samurai history I found:

Maybe not the best example, but you get the idea. Perhaps try Flicker.

Generally, speaking though use of content for educational or informative use qualifies as fair use under most international copyrights. So as long as you ask, if asked, to use content and credit authors if requested or out of courtesy - you shouldn't have any problems.