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I'm hoping someone who knows the facts can help me out.

Something has come up that I may need to moderate on a different forum. Someone posted a "want ad" with an image of a model he's looking for. The image, it turns out, was from a FEEbay auction and the guy who posted the auction is ticked & complaining about it.

Does he "own" the rights to the image if he took it?
Does the fact that he posted it on the internet give the other guy any kind of justification for using it?
Does "Fair Use" allow the guy to use the publicly posted image?

Is/Are there some other factor(s) that come(s) into play?

Thanks for your input, guys.

Eric

If the image does not have a copy right associated with and if false credit is not being taken for said image then there is no harm. Copy rights are there to protect IP if this does not appear to be a form of IP though without a link to both sites I cannot give you a concrete answer.

MagickalMemories wrote:I'm hoping someone who knows the facts can help me out.

Something has come up that I may need to moderate on a different forum. Someone posted a "want ad" with an image of a model he's looking for. The image, it turns out, was from a FEEbay auction and the guy who posted the auction is ticked & complaining about it.

Does he "own" the rights to the image if he took it?
Does the fact that he posted it on the internet give the other guy any kind of justification for using it?
Does "Fair Use" allow the guy to use the publicly posted image?

Is/Are there some other factor(s) that come(s) into play?

Thanks for your input, guys.

Eric

I'm not an expert, but the answers to your questions are:
Yes
No
No

Once you create something, you own all rights to it. You can post it anywhere you want, and still own rights to it. Fair use is primarily to pretect things like criticism, scholarship, parody, etc.

Think of it like this: If you own a sign and put it on your front lawn, could your neighbor take it and put it on his front lawn? No, right? it's basically the same thing.

Here's a helpful guide

Eff notes on fair Use

In short, Polonius is completely correct. Internet posting =/= public domain.

In general the person who pressed the shutter button owns the copyright on a photo.

Stuff posted on the Internet is not copyright free, even though misuse can be hard to find out.

Fair Use covers uses such as review and criticism. Using the shot in a want advert is not fair use, unless the advertiser is specifically looking for the exact model the photo is of (I mean the identical and self-same model, not another example of that model.)

I am not a lawyer, I have only studied IP law in connection with my employment.

Polonius wrote:

MagickalMemories wrote:Something has come up that I may need to moderate on a different forum. Someone posted a "want ad" with an image of a model he's looking for. The image, it turns out, was from a FEEbay auction and the guy who posted the auction is ticked & complaining about it.

Does he "own" the rights to the image if he took it?
Does the fact that he posted it on the internet give the other guy any kind of justification for using it?
Does "Fair Use" allow the guy to use the publicly posted image?

Is/Are there some other factor(s) that come(s) into play?

I'm not an expert, but the answers to your questions are:
Yes
No
No

This.

Moreover, if the copyright owner is savvy enough, he can send the forum operator a request under the DMCA to have the copyrighted work removed, with potential consequences for the forum operator if they don't comply (and it's a valid request).

Thus, my inquiry. : )

Thanks for the info guys. I got exactly what I thought I'd get (but wasn't certain of).


Eric