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Due to potential copy right infringement and the severe penalty for each offense (each photo) I had no choice but to wash the forum. I'd first like to apologize to everyone who either contributed posts or simply enjoyed looking at the photos on several of the most popular threads on this forum. I simply had no choice but to delete them and scrub through the ones I felt comfortable enough to leave up.
Well as they say you learn something new everyday. While talking with my webmaster on Monday he shared a frightening story about two of his other clients who had received notices from Getty Images for copy right violations for displaying a couple of what were thought to be free Stock photos on their websites. The notices claimed damages for several thousand dollars but if they acted quickly all could be resolved for about 800.00 bucks. One of his clients was in a jamb due to the fact that he had ignored it and the debt was sold to a collection agency. He wasn't even given a warning to correct the infringement; it was simply pay up or else. I thought as long as a protected photo is not in my logo, title page or promotion of a product I assumed it was alright to display in a forum post. But as I have read I found out that this is not the case. From what I gather any public display of an in unauthorized photos is an infringement. How sites get caught is a code is embedded into the photo. then these companies send out "bots" to scour the internet looking for them. From what I understand getty images and corbis are the most aggressive at penalizing for infringement. Look up "getty image scam" for a better understanding. So with my new education on the law I have ask anyone who posts photos in the future to please be sure the image is either taken by them or they have permission from the person who took the shot.
example I got permission from John Straubb to display his work. Pre-1964 photos are generally safe unless watermarked with a copyright notice. The photos you find on google or yahoo images are not free for the taking just because they can easily be copied so you have to be very careful. The buck stops with me so if a protected photo gets posted they come after me and not the person who posted it. So to stay out of harms way this site will now have to rely on original content. I am very sorry about all of this. It has been a most stressful and disappointing week. Justin
Well as they say you learn something new everyday. While talking with my webmaster on Monday he shared a frightening story about two of his other clients who had received notices from Getty Images for copy right violations for displaying a couple of what were thought to be free Stock photos on their websites. The notices claimed damages for several thousand dollars but if they acted quickly all could be resolved for about 800.00 bucks. One of his clients was in a jamb due to the fact that he had ignored it and the debt was sold to a collection agency. He wasn't even given a warning to correct the infringement; it was simply pay up or else. I thought as long as a protected photo is not in my logo, title page or promotion of a product I assumed it was alright to display in a forum post. But as I have read I found out that this is not the case. From what I gather any public display of an in unauthorized photos is an infringement. How sites get caught is a code is embedded into the photo. then these companies send out "bots" to scour the internet looking for them. From what I understand getty images and corbis are the most aggressive at penalizing for infringement. Look up "getty image scam" for a better understanding. So with my new education on the law I have ask anyone who posts photos in the future to please be sure the image is either taken by them or they have permission from the person who took the shot.
example I got permission from John Straubb to display his work. Pre-1964 photos are generally safe unless watermarked with a copyright notice. The photos you find on google or yahoo images are not free for the taking just because they can easily be copied so you have to be very careful. The buck stops with me so if a protected photo gets posted they come after me and not the person who posted it. So to stay out of harms way this site will now have to rely on original content. I am very sorry about all of this. It has been a most stressful and disappointing week. Justin