copyright question
 

i am building a site related to wireless router .
and need router images to use on site.

i am planning on scraping images from other site, but they have watermarked router images with their domain name on it.

1) so can i use those images on my website without removing the watermark,without getting in trouble ?

2) can i use those images on my website after removing the watermark ,without getting in trouble?
(the site i am scraping images from, doesnt own the images/rights, as those are just are available on internet from makers like linksys) e.g.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._WRT54G_V1.jpg

3) should i use non watermarked original images from other sources?


its gonna be mainstream site, so i dont want to get banned from adsense. or from my host

Thanks

You could always shoot your own images. If you selling the routers then go to the router site and get images from them.

shooting our own images is nearly impossible as its gonna be router information site and there are like 4k+ routers i guess,

i can get the images from router site but there are some routers which are outdated and sites have upgraded , so i guess only place ill get those images is from google image search.

thanks for your input.

I usually buy my own images...

http://www.istockphoto.com/search/te.../basic#9ba244f

unless it is going to be a store that sells the actual products than I might lift them from the manufacturers site

its not store , just a informative site.

and thanks man for the stock idea, i dont know how i missed that.

When buying stock images make sure you are getting them from a reputable stock site. If the site you buy from is cheap and located in the third world, when you get sued you are the one responsible not them... and good luck suing them to recover your losses.

Istockphoto isn't the cheapest but they actually own the rights to what they sell. :2 cents:

I would use the manufactures website photos.:winkwink:

Using anyone else's images on your website is a breach of copyright unless:

1. The images being used are licensed for such usage under a creative commons or other such licence (be aware many such license prohibit commercial usage)

2. You have explicit permission from the owner of the image to use them.

3. You are covered by fair use (e.g.: a news story about a website could display an image of that website and be covered by fair use)

4. You are given permission by an affiliate program which has licensed the use of images for affiliate use.

Unless you have permission or are covered by fair use then using someone else's images on your site is a breach of copyright.

General rule: If you don't own the images or the rights to use those images, you can't display them. Shoot your own, or buy what you need from istockphoto or similar services. It costs very little and will save you a fortune in legal fees later on.

thats your best bet.

but do not risk using other peoples pics.

if you do use other peoples pics, alter them as much as you can so they do not look the same.

but somone is bound to play silly devil and to save you a lot of grief take your own pics where you can.

are you insane, he can't buy tech product images from stockphoto sites... because there are none

no stockphoto site carries photos that contain even a tiny logo... unless it's editorial photography which is completely different thing

just go with photos from manufacturers' sites

I can't imagine many people buy a wireless router based on how it looks. Most likely people would be more interested in the back end of it, how many ports it has, signal lights and that sort of thing. You want to have a site with 1000s of products but the main information about them is likely the same or very similar. Get an illustrator to make you an image set of the various port configurations and use them for each item to show information that matters to people, rather than showing meaningless photos of the front of a router.

Getting a full set of nicely made illustrations showing each possible hardware configuration will likely cost you a few hundred bucks and take a few days, and be much easier than collecting 1000s of pictures nobody really wants to see anyway. The manufacturers' manuals are filled with illustrations in most cases rather than pictures because the schematics matter more than the visuals...

http://us.123rf.com/450wm/ohmega1982...ion-eps-10.jpg


Just my 2c

Thanks for your input, dang this is new for me.

thats the last idea, as its much easier to scrape from other site instead of going to each manufacturer site then search and download images for each and every model.

gonna check if there is some kind of images search api out there.

I really appreciate your input , thanks for your time.

The other site i am talking about is getting those images from manufaturer and watermarking them with their domain .

i was under impression that i could use theirs as they are also just scraping from manufacturer site.

thanks for your input.

i found few photos on some stock site, i know i wont find all , manufacturers site is the best option for me i guess.
thanks.

its just no the photo site , theres gonna be more technical information , photo is just for giving the look of the hardware .

but i see what you mean there,
this is really helpful, thanks

I would search e-bay and amazon for pictures others have taken of a product they're trying to sell. You won't find everyone you need, but you will find some of what you do.

I buy my routers by the number of LEDs it has, if it has a lot of different colored light it must be good:thumbsup

amazon is great option, ... thanks

thats strange, usually i go for highest number of antenna it has.

if you are writing info articles on your site, which are considered like news articles, you can use pictures as editorial pictures and you buy them as editorial from stock sites or you can use pics from manufacturer with their permission (just mail them). however, you can't use pics from other sites (unless that pics are also given with permission from manufacturer or under creative common license)

you can use, without paying or manufacturer permission, pictures under cc license, but you have to give credits (put source and author in caption of pic). those pics you can find on wikipedia or similar sites or other info sites like yours and you can use them (with caption!)

so, if you are buying pics, use stock sites like shutterstock which have bulk options for monthly/yearly download and almost everything covered and you can get editorial licence. shutterstock is one of the cheapest and biggest. and I'm selling my stock work there :upsidedow ... unfortunately, don't have pics of routers for you.

on the end, you can use your own pictures as you own copyright for that and for editorial (newsworthy) use you do not need permission from logo owner (manufacturer), but as you said, that is not option for you (or you can for routers you can photograph on your own)

Yeah, you learned that when you stole a sponsor's pics, rewatermarked them as your own and uploaded them, didn't you?

http://f.cl.ly/items/150z3X100A2t2M3S2i2Q/divvy2.gif

I go for aerodynamics...and if it has a flat top to rest my beer on.

i go to the bathroom on MY router...