Is this kind of use of licensed photos acceptable?
 

person A has bought pictures from a content provider and is using them legally in his site/gallery/whatever

Person B links to A's site/gallery/whatever by using a thumb of A's pictures. Is person B breaking copyright laws? If he is, how about A, is he in compliance with the license even if he's knowingly letting B link him that way?

And does it matter if B serves the thumbs from his own server or hotlinks them from A's server?

I have only a strong guess about this but I'd like to know how it is exactly.

it goes as simple as that: DON'T USE CONTENT WITHOUT A LICENSE... as long the other part - if someone grabs a picture from your site and starts to use it without a license, you can't be held responsible.

IMO tgps that link to the galleries by using a thumb (from that gallery) are violating the copyright... that's true if they both hotlink it AND/OR if they save the thumb on their machine...

however, i'd really like to hear other opinions as well...

That is my "strong guess" as well.
But how about all those sites using "sample pics" etc? Lets take picture posts in general as an example.

Interestingly, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals just ruled on thumbnails two days ago. Appearently its fair use to thumbnail someone elses images. Read the articles below for more info:


http://www.law.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/Ap...&showsummary=0

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data2/...h/0055521p.pdf

http://slashdot.org/yro/02/02/08/0124251.shtml?tid=123

Most content providers allow you use 5-10 images from a set for promotional material such as banners and buttons, I'd think thumbnails (as long as they're being used to promote your site) would be allowed under these terms as well...

Plan on hotlinking someone's gallery, mika?

Yes. i have a list of your galleries

Ruh roh....

Just because it MAY be legal, does not make it right. If I catch somebody doing this I will send Vinny and Bubba after them.

and vice versa

of course you know what serves this decision of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals....

aaron i'm gonna make some thumbnails from your content with dimensions 500x600 since the actual content is something like 2200x2000 or so!

Yeah, that will fly....Like a brick.

I had a long post. I had a lot of facts most of you would never imagine. I shared private experiences. then I used to many faces lost it all and now sit here...

Thumb a Monet have it link to a art gallery where they can buy it. ok.

Thumb a image of Jenna Jamison, it wont matter where you link it to. Someone is going to ask for your proof of ownership or worse, a model release form to prove a girl was of legal age at the time the picture was taken. Dont have that proof of age? :ugone2far

Guilty until proven innocent? you tell me.


Long and short, content is cheap enough not to risk this. I know sponsors who have actually gone out and bought contnet for their sites because a webmaster liked it and requested that they get it. Stranger things have happened.

my two cents for what they maybe worth...

Joe B