Rip Reporting

The first wallpaper in the sci-fi section is transmutate's 0.01 with no mention of his authorship. I recognized others (Divine, etc.)

unscrupulous...

heyas, i just came accross a site that uses the excellant wallpaper "Medulla Oblongata" - now, i don't know who the author is that made the wall =/ but can some1 check this: http://cart.tk and see the 'background' section (the site is mostly flash and is kind of an annoying site, but anyhow, is this a rip?... cause i can't find the authors wallpaper section so i think it may be).

sorries if this is kinda off-topic hehe, you know what i mean - maybe i should have posted this in a seperate message.

cyaz.

oops, "message" = "thread"

Email as sent by me to Gregor of 'dot Project.org'....

It appears that you are displaying numerous wallpaper images on your site originally created by authors other than yourself.
Although images are freely available for download on the Internet, they are EXPRESSLY for personal use, which does not include the reproduction and redistribution of them via another site such as yours.
The modification, and/or re-distribution of an artist's images without his/her express permission is in violation of the Artist's Copyright, and is pursuable in law.

Whether these images link to the original artist's site or not, or whether the Original artist is credited or not, without prior permission to display such, you are in violation of inherent and/or expressed copyright.

I strongly suggest you remove any such images for which you do not have permission to display, and minimize the potential for litigation against you and subsequent claims for loss.

I await your favourable response.

Paul Martin
Jafo
[Admin...Wincustomize.com]
[Admin...Pixtudio.com]
[Admin...Pixelprintz.com]
[Senior Member...Deviantart.com]

Nice one, Jafo. Very well put.

I've had a little practise, Mike...

Just a little????

OK...got a reply...and my response is posted above it....
[Email addy deleted for privacy]


Gregor...
Yes, it does seem to be a difficult situation, but unfortunately that is the case.
The walls such as those available for download on sites such as Deviantart are specifically for personal, private use and are not allowed to be re-distributed publicly without permission.
All that you CAN do is firstly to add a prominent notice on your site requesting any concerned Artists to contact you and provide their consent, or, remove their work from display on your site.

The absolute least thing you can do is credit each and every artist....providing their name beside each Wallpaper.

In the meantime you will have to expect a number of irate Artists demanding their works to be removed.

The difference between yours, and sites such as Deviantart, Wincustomize, etc, is that the Artists have uploaded their works to these sites themselves, and retain the ability to remove them again if they so desire.
Until your site provides the same facility, you will continue to have complaints from the On-line Art community.

Obviously you appreciate these Artists' work, as you are displaying their 'stuff'. As long as you equally respect their rights of Authorship [copyright], you should have no trouble with their display.

Feel free to contact me for any assistance that I can give....advice, etc.
Cheers,
Paul Martin
Jafo.
[Admin...Wincustomize.com]
[Admin...Pixtudio.com]
[Admin...Pixelprintz.com]
[Senior Member...Deviantart.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: Gregor
Sent: Wednesday, April 03, 2002 12:10 AM
To: Paul Martin
Subject: Re: Wallpapers


well.. um...

that means i must:

1. delete all wallpapers i got from deviantart,
2. delete all wallpapers for which i don't know where did i get them
3. contact all authors from the wallpapers for which i know to who they
belong?

is that so? is there any legal way to keep these wallpapers online?

thank you very much for helping and answering me

_____________________________________

Gregor

OK, latest state of affairs...
Gregor is attempting to do the right thing...

My reply is above his last email.
[addy's removed for privacy]

Gregor....
What I meant about 'respecting their copyright' means that if you don't have permission to display their work, and especially if you don't know the author's name....you should remove any download link for the wall and just show the small preview image with "Author Unknown...not for download", or something similar.

It really means that to do things correctly, and professionally, you DO need to contact each and every Author for which you have a downloadable image.

But...if you are setting things up so that the Artists can submit their works, then eventually the existing walls that you don't have permission for will be redundant anyway...

As for easier communication....ICQ...59227163 if you like..


For legal agreements controlling Artists and uploads...the version at Deviantart.com is quite representational of all of the 'pro' Art sites, and should be sufficient for yours, too.
HOWEVER....contact jark at Deviantart for permission to use his site's wording....[yes, it's subject to copyright, too]...

Hope this helps some more,
Cheers,
Paul


-----Original Message-----
From: Gregor [mailto:***]
Sent: Thursday, April 04, 2002 12:35 AM
To: Paul Martin
Subject: Re: Wallpapers


Hello Paul!

I thank you again for helping me out from that kind of situation. I really
apretiate your help!

Everything you said is crystal clear to me except last few sentences. You
said:
---
As long as you equally respect their rights of Authorship
[copyright], you should have no trouble with their display.
---
What did you mean with that? Of course i respect them and their work but
what does that help me and my site if now i must contact every single one of
them. Oh, doesn't matter.

Anyways.. i'm working on submit section where you could upload your own
wallpaper or screenshot. Then, there wont be a problem. Um.. is there
anything i can do to stop this madness about this? i mean,.. i put a notice
on wallpapers pages. what else i can do? i don't want to remove this walls
unless author says so.

btw.. our page also needs some privacy policy and some legal things to
write. well, we don't have that at this time. well, but i want dotproject to
be "pro" site also with legal stuff and privacy. can you help me out with
it?

okay, that's all for now. thank you again Paul,


ps:
- do you use MSN messenger??? (*** - my address,.. we
could discuss about that overthere if you have it)
- sorry about my "slightly changed" english



Best regards until next time,

_____________________________________

Gregor

Good work, guys.
Paul, the tone of your emails was perfect, something difficult to achieve. You educated Gregor in a moderate, temperate manner.
(Now the only question is, who are you and what have you done with the real Jafo!)
Thanks to all.

Oh, shut up, Larry....or I'll correct your spelling even when it's right...