Re: Fair (or unfair) use of images.

[Jeff Hecht <jeff@jeffhecht.com>]

Fair use allows the _personal use_ of copyrighted material, so anyone 
can copy images from your web site for their "personal" use -- but 
that does not include republishing them on the web or on paper. That 
is, there's nothing you can do to stop them from making personal 
copies or showing them privately to their friends. But you can demand 
that they remove the images from their web site.

If you have registered copyright in your images, US law allows you to 
sue for "statutory damages" that are provided for in law whether or 
not the copyright infringer has made any profit from them. One 
article that describes this (in context of copying music files) is at
http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/2000-all/landau-2000-10-all.html

There also is information on the US government copyright office site:
http://www.copyright.gov/

The boundaries of fair use are hazier for quotes excerpted from text, 
but they're clear for images.
Jeff Hecht, science & technology writer
At 5:11 PM +0200 8/23/04, Renesto Silvio Claudio wrote:
> Dear all,
>
>     I accidentally came across an anti-evolutionist website (for the
> dinolist: take note that I  did not use the forbidden word, and also that I
> am not discussing that topic, but strictly a problem of ownership) which has
> put online some artwork, and a couple of pictures are mine (downoladed from
> my previous website). In their/his disclaimer these (or this) guy (aka
> Megaraptor.com) write(s) that all the picures he used fall under the **fair
> use discipline** and quotes an US law. I am a bit concerned. Fair use means
> you have not to ask for permission even if it is wirtten clearly in the
> website that the images are copyrighted  and cannot be uses without asking to
> the author????
> Given the mood of the site, which mixes up xxxxionism, Nessie, and
> crypto...logy, You can imagine how I willingly I would have given the
> permission to use  my pictures!!!!!
> Can I plainly ask him/them to took off the pictures or will it be UNfair ?
>
> If anyone wants to check if there is something of his property, you can
> google the above name (Megaraptor.com)
> Thanks for any suggestion,
>
>
> Silvio Renesto