A BB members recent experience with a photo of hers being used in a comp brings up many questions. We caption each other's piccys here and usually it is well received.  I'd hate to step on anyones toes though and do the wrong thing.

  What do you think is acceptable and not acceptable in using other peoples photos?

I've posted photos here I'd save from a rescue website.  Is that a no-no?  I had thought posting photos in a forum environment was ok.....

If I had used same photos to promote a product online or for images on a website I'd created, then I'd be stepping over the line right?

Any thoughts?  I'm  completely naive when it comes to this sort of thing!

I have always thought if you're not claiming the photo as your own then it was ok.  If there was a negativity added to the  photo then I could see it otherwise (making fun of or changing a photo to make it disturbing/rude/etc).  Also, if the location that you get the photo from had some kind of "copyright" or "do not use" message then I would respect that.  But otherwise, if you're posting photos online in a public place then it's kind of out there and I don't think there's anything wrong with using it.

From my way of thinking that's about right. The problem with the picture posted on the other website is that a) the photo was either submitted to them or taken by them without the owner's knowledge and b) the owner is actually a photographer, so those aren't just "hey here's a picture of my pet" photos those are part of a professional portfolio of photos.

It is a good lesson to be learned though. It's so easy for people to just save pictures from websites and then post them as their own. I think it's one thing to say "I saw this picture and it was just the cutest thing" and another to try and pass it off as your own, or when a commercial site has it posted with no credit to the photographer/owner.

I have some of my travel photos online on my business site (well, on my server, they're not actually linked from my site yet) and I've got a nice big watermark across them to make sure that no one saves them to pass off as their own or use on another website.

I think it's just disconcerting to see your own personal pictures posted on some other site without having any knowledge about it, and with no mention that they don't belong to the site owner.  If there was some credit, or if it's in something like a forum where you can say "I found this online" then that's one thing, but to see it up on a commercial site must feel a bit like a violation of privacy, like something special has been stolen from you.

- Annette

i think in network (used here) is fine.. if you choose to use someone elses photos elsewhere (such as LOLbunnies or the like) you should request permission first, even if you are saving them to your pc as a desktop ask permission, you never know how people feel about their photos being used and its just common courtesy first and foremost... people are generally flattered if their photos are being used anywhere but it would be much nicer if they knew about it.. i had a problem with my photo being used with out permission, i had to find it myself on accident really, i wasnt getting credit for it. someone else put their name on my photo. the best thing people can do is put watermarks on all their shared photos to avoid it happening, people can even steal your photos and sell them to different stocking companies and you would never know. I know I for one will go back to watermarking my photos again... FYI, watermarked photos look like this

Yikes!  Even if you save a photo to you PC?  I'm guilty of that, recaptioning and posting pics from another website here. The pictures themselves weren't copyrighted. I did specify that they were from another site and not my own.
Adee, someone else put their name on your photo, as in watermarked it or claimed they took the photo? That is so obviously not right!! I can see why you would get frustrated - especially over photos like the ones you take.   BTW I'm liking the new Abbie avatar.  How do you pick just one?  Be great if avatar could be mini slide show!!

no, they put their watermark on the photo (see top left) the caption was added by a member of RO because the photo was selected for caption contest... its very funny and i was for sure amused by the edit but the LOL website credited the photo to ro.com, not to myself as the owner nor the person who came up with the caption... the archive the photo as their own. The photo wasnt taken by them and i was very upset that the owner put her watermark on my photo, especially because it was taken without permission, had she just posted the pic without further editing it, i wouldnt have had a problem at all, its very flattering and i have had my photos used on websites, brochures, banners, exc its when they are used without prior permission is when i get upset..

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 I do believe Beka is right there is a legal issue with taking photos too, especially when they are copywrited. Hopefuly BB can shed some light on the scenario of taking/using photos.. i know shes contacted me in the past requesting permission to use my photos here for the gallery and i really appreciate when people ask, even if they were placed in the gallery without my permission, i wouldnt mind if they were being used here, its when they are removed from this site and put on another site. In network is fine by me. Even when photos are copied and pasted somewhere else, stating this photo isnt mine but im sharing it with you, here is my source... would be acceptable when a photo is being taken from an email.

Wow I never even thought about this!  Glad you all are bringing this up. I wonder if we should not be posting other people's youtube videos, which I just did this morning re: the cat & the baby bunny! Uh oh...

Honestly I think if people post their videos/pictures to a site like that then at that point it's ok to borrow them for things or to pass them on.  If someone is posting their video to be seen on like youtube or yahoo videos then they want to share that with others.  I think there is something with photobucket (actually I know there is) to make your photo albums private so that people can only get in with a password.  That prevents people from posting your photo somewhere else.  The same with like myspace, you can make your page friends only and then only your friends can see your photos. 

Claiming a pictue as your own is different though but when you link to a photo it then shows who the photo/video belongs to...or atleast who posted it.

I don't see a watermark on that photo (unless I am missing something) , I think they just put the lolbunnies part on there because the picture/caption combo was from that site. 

it really i neither here nor there, if people dont want their photos being used without their permission my suggestion would be watermark them with your email address, webaddress, name, exc. I just wanted other people to know photos are being taken and thats all the way around, rabbit picutres, flower pictures, exc.

Ohhh ok, so they just took the whole thing in general from that site.  Gotcha.  I thought that they had came up with the caption and therefore that's why they added the lolbunnies part because it was the "changed form" or something. 

You know what else I was reading, I was reading that certain sites in the terms of use say that photos can be taken from the site.  That's kind of scary and it's not something I've really ever looked into before.  It was a lot of legal mumbo jumbo that I didn't understand fully but basically it said that if on the site's terms of use it says that it's public domain or free trade or I dunno lol I'm at work so don't have the site open anymore, anyway..yea it was really weird and I didn't think that an entire site could make that call for people posting. 

There is this website I tried to send a copy of an outfit I was ordering.  However there was some kind of block on it that came up in written form when I tried to copy and paste. Saying these pics are for their site and the women in them wearing the outfits are for their site only and can't be copied

I wonder how that is done the blocking of copying photos and such.  Would be nice to be able to do that to your photography site.

Also How do you watermark.   Does Photobucket have a special section for that.   Do you just go in and write your name or whatever on the online photo?

 as long as you arent ripping the video from youtube, then reuploading it isnt an issue.  simply using the embed tag provided by youtube and other video hosting sites you should be fine, but IANAL.

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also here is a free site for watemarking images http://picmarkr.com/