Aside from that, there is a lot of copyright violating going on. But, sometimes there are exceptions. Some places are very restrictive about how you can use their photos, and others allow general usage so long as you’re not making money off of them. It all depends on the copyright holder, who determines how people can use the copyrighted work. For example, a few years ago, Paramount really went after sites using Star Trek materials. On the other hand, JMS allowed Babylon 5 fans to share images because he recognized it helped promote the series. Mind you, I don’t remember his exact terms of usage, so no one should run out and start pasting Babylon 5 stuff all over their websites without checking into that first!

Bottom line is, whenever you want to use someone else’s stuff, get their permission. If they have a statement or licensing agreement on their website, then naturally you don’t have to contact them directly for their permission so long as your usage falls under the scope of the agreement. For any special usages or if you don’t see a license agreement or other statement of permission, contact them. And, a statement of “If I don’t hear back from you, I’ll assume it’s okay” is not going to fly. For one, you cannot be sure they received your message. And, for the second thing, you’re the one that needs some kind of explicit permission to use the work. The lack of a refusal of permission is not the same as an actual statement of permission!

When I first started doing websites, I used images from clip art companies and the like. But, a few years ago, some of them got in trouble for not having the proper permissions (or something) to some of the works they offered. I don’t remember the details, but there were accusations along those lines. Some of the copyright holders even went after the end-users! I think there were situations where they would send the webmasters a bill and a threatening letter in the hopes of getting them to pay. I don’t think I ever had any of those images, but I went through and removed everything I could find that had been obtained through the clip art sites. And, these were big name clip art sites, not the small “We believe all images are in the public domain” sites that I mentioned in my post. These were the ones you would naturally assume to be reputable and on the level. I don’t remember the final outcome, but I avoid any clip art sites these days.

Now, I only use content I’ve created myself, content I’ve hired people to create for me or content that is in the public domain. For public domain works, I use the worksheet mentioned in the book I posted about, then I make copies of the public domain work and stick it all together in a file. You want to have a paper trail in case any issue ever arises where someone may question your usage of the content. By having a paper trail, I believe (but I’m not a lawyer) that it will show that you made a good faith effort to determine its copyright status. In my case, I’ve used only works prior to 1923, so it should be a pretty simple matter of showing the original material (or copy) and the copyright date as printed. Still, I completely fill out the worksheet.