Re: copying photos
Originally Posted by
Floydy
->
What about images that we find simply by Googling something? Many of us find a random or specific picture, photo or smiley emoticon or a gif and copy and paste it to this forum don't we? The Mods seem okay with that.
That happens all the time doesn't it? The image creators/owners will either never find out or just won't be worried. If a site has a collection of emoticons for instance, they might have put them there to be used. Some won't even mind if you hotlink to them. I'd always check the terms and condition of the site before hotlinking to their images to see if they mention anything about it. Even if they don't want hotlinking taking place, they may not mind if you download the image/emoticon/photo to your computer and then upload them to here or an image hosting site of choice.
Hotlinking to an image on the owners site, uses their bandwidth and that bandwidth has to be paid for somewhere along the line. That's why, if you look into this subject, you'll eventually come across the term 'bandwidth theft' (google it). Downloading the image to your computer and then uploading it for display here doesn't use their bandwidth.
A short while ago, I came across a short video on the front page of Imgur that I thought was good and linked to it for showing here. Being an image hosting site, I thought this would be OK. I should have read the terms and conditions first because shortly after posting, I worried about it and found out that it isn't OK to link to those videos. Mags kindly removed the post for me.
That's one site where the terms and conditions state that the images and videos should not be linked to but as said, some sites
will mind hotlinking
and taking their images. Others might not mind you doing both. Best to read their terms and conditions first if you want to stay strictly correct when it comes to using to images found on the Internet.
The trouble is that once this has been highlighted, it can put a damper on the enjoyment of a forum. People have been linking to or downloading images for years with no trouble and don't see why it should stop. All I'd say is to be aware of the above even if deciding to take no notice of it.
Edit: I should just add that if an image is hotlinked to, the site owner can trace which site is hotlinking to their images. Not much will happen if they mind this, other than breaking the link or asking for it to desist in order to stop their bandwidth being used. I think it would be unusual for them to go any further than this.