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View Full Version : Concerned about photo hosting/sharing copyright and licensing issues


EllenC
27th of June 2007 (Wed), 16:47
I was just about to sign up for photobucket until I read the terms of use. Unless I'm really misunderstanding the legal jargon, it sounds like while you still retain the copyright, you give them license to use your image however they see fit. You also give them the right to alter your image.

If this is infact the case, I'm very surprised photographers (amateur and professional) use them. Maybe no one is reading the fine print.

Are all the sites (smugmug, pbase etc.) like this?

Here is the paragraph in question:

3. Your License to Photobucket

Photobucket does not claim any ownership rights in any User Content that you choose to post to the Site. After posting User Content to the Site,you continue to retain all ownership or license rights in your User Content and you continue to have the right to use your User Content as you did prior to such posting. However, by posting or making User Content available through the Site or via the Services, you hereby grant to Photobucket a nonexclusive, royalty-free, transferable, worldwide license to use, copy, modify, prepare derivative works from, distribute, publicly display and publicly perform (whether by means of a digital audio transmission or otherwise) and process your User Content, or any part of it, solely on and through the Site and Services, including without limitation (a) adapting the format of your User Content (for example by encoding or transcoding) for suitable display on the Site; and (b) displaying, in Photobucket's sole discretion, your public User Content in search results generated by the Photobucket search engine. In addition, where you have made your User Content public, posted a link to your User Content on another website or otherwise shared a link to your User Content, you grant to Photobucket a nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide right to sublicense the right to copy, modify, prepare derivative works from, and distribute your User Content as necessary to perform the Services, including without limitation the printing services offered by Partner Sites. In connection with the above license, you provide your consent for Photobucket personnel, including Photobucket contractors and service providers, to view your User Content at any time for the purpose of providing the Services and filtering content that violates this Agreement. You acknowledge that you are solely responsible for all Content you submit to the Site or provide to the Service. You represent that you either own the User Content or have the rights necessary to grant Photobucket this license.

sonshine_rae
27th of June 2007 (Wed), 16:56
I imagine most of the sites do have that sort of clause in them.. otherwise how else could they display, resize, crop, etc your image?

I think Flickr has the options to put on their that all rights are reserved with a copyright symbol next to that statement. And though they offer to sell me prints, if I have my copyrights restricted they don't offer to sell them to anyone else.

However 'if' people want to steal your photos they still can.. it's as easy as right clicking on the image.

Posting photos on the net.. is just that way.. anymore.

bwolford
28th of January 2008 (Mon), 18:02
I asked this question of FLICKR Customer support. This is what they sent me in reply.

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Flickr Customer Care.

Here on Flickr, your photos are, by default "All Rights
Reserved." As a
Flickr member, you have the option of leaving them that
way, or
licensing them for use under Creative Commons. Please see
our FAQ for
more detailed information on copyright and Creative Commons
licenses:

- http://www.flickr.com/help/photos/#87

You can see all of the Creative Commons licenses here:

- http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/

I hope this helps.

Thank you again for contacting us. If you have any other
questions,
please feel free to reply to this email.
Regards,


Eric
Flickr Customer Care