GIMP Version: 2.8.4
Operating System: Ubuntu 12.04
GIMP Experience: Professional

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Hi. Just a quick question about the policy of not posting (c) materials.

I do a lot of professional work with GIMP, and would like to show off some of the results, maybe do some tutorials using materials I've done for work, involving my professional work flow. Technically, all the content is mine, but also technically it's (c) material. I don't want to be banned and lose all the posts I've made here for violating any site rules, so if someone could help me out here, I'd appreciate it. I would of course have permission from my employer before I posted any of it, but I'd like to make sure I don't step on any moderator toes like last time. Am I reasonably "safe" from being banned again?

Any advice or help would be much appreciated.

All graphic arts are copyright protected, whether or not the creator files for a legal copyright.

Pursuant to 17USC106 the owner of the copyright has exclusive authority to "in the case of pictorial, graphic, or sculptural works, to display the copyrighted work publicly" or to authorize others to do so.

If you are the copyright owner, you are in the clear.
If the copyright owner gives you permission then you are in the clear. Get it in writing if you are not the copyright owner.
What are they giving you permission to do? Get specifics.

"I, Graphic Arts Guru, give CRogers permission to use my work entitled "Throw-Up On Canvas" for the purposes of entertainment, information, education, critique, criticism, derivative works, and reproduction in original form."

Cover your assets. You never know when someone is going to claim a work is their copyright and claim legal damages. I've seen it happen as much as 70 years after the original work. Copyright of graphic arts is generally for a period of the author's lifetime plus x number of years.

All the photography, graphics, etc, are all hand-made by me. I don't use clipart in anything. I'm the graphics department for my company. lol The company owns the rights to the materials I make, because that's what they are paying me for, but like I said, I'm not concerned with my company coming after me, I'm concerned with the site policy for showing (c) material. Source files will not be included in these tutorials for (c) reasons (just in case), however the tuts will feature screen shots of actual production work done in GIMP, inkscape, etc. I have seen no indication that this isn't okay, but I'd like GNU Tux to chime in on it, just to be sure I don't ruffle any (penguin?) feathers.

I think if you give yourself the necessary permissions , there will be no problem

Let's see what GnuTux says...

As an example, I made this splash page this week: http://www.austin-craig.com/
Everything you see was made with Open Source software, from the pre-production case design (Blender 3d, GIMP, Inkscape),
to the photography, and photo-editing (That case wasn't sitting on that table, lol) (GIMP), to the web graphics (Inkscape, GIMP), to the Logo (Inkscape, GIMP). The HTML is also mine... but Not sure that's something to be proud of. lol It's clean at least.

What's really going to be fun to post about is the Models we are going to get in next week. I get to photograph them, and edit them (GIMP) into photos of all the cool places around London I've come across in my coffee-fueled ramblings. Will make for some nice double-barrel critiques.

I'm worried about getting kicked offa here (again). Lol. I need someone to hold my hand and tell me it's okay!

From the image you've linked you also have trademark infringement considerations.
The artwork may be yours but the company brand is (presumably) proprietary.
Is that an established trademark or is that your work also?

CRogers i don't see any problem with you posting your work to show the process as you create it. If you have permission from your company and permission from your clients then it shouldn't matter. They have basically given copyrights over to you and now you need only inform users here NOT to copy the images or resources you post without your written permission.

What Rod said.


CRogers, the only reason you were kicked off is that you engaged in typical spammer behavior in your first post. We have a hair trigger when it comes to spam. You contacted us and once it was determined that you were not a spammer, you were reinstated.

The chances of you being banned now is very slim. About the only thing that will get you banned is spamming, personal attacks or blatant and repeated rule violations, while ignoring our warnings. Right off the top of my head, I can only think of one member who was actually banned and that was only temporary. We don't normally delete member's posts either, unless the post is a blatant violation of the rules or the post has missing images, which is usually due to a defunct 3rd party hosting account they were using.

As far as copyrighted images are concerned, we are not the "image police" and have neither the time, nor the inclination, to worry too much about what license is used when someone posts a derivation of an image, or some cool rendered text using a GPL'd font. It is the poster's responsibility to know if the image or script is protected/licensed or if it's considered "public domain". If Gimp Chat is sent a take down notice from a legit copyright holder, we will remove the item in dispute until the issue is resolved.

There is also "fair use" law, which states..


Under these conditions, pretty much all copyrighted material can be republished.

Am I going to court to fight a "fair use" case? Probably not, unless the EFF steps in and pays the costs.

Since this site is located in the United States, we adhere to U.S. law. The U.S. is a sovereign nation and doesn't recognize international law, except in the case of a treaty. Under our constitution, said treaty must be ratified by our legislature and signed by our president for it to be considered law.

There is good discussion thread on this topic posted here.

Yea, I get that, and I appreciate I tripped the spammer alarm. I also appreciate being let back in, so not really complaining. Just trying to make sure I don't trip any more alarms!



Perfectly reasonable. That makes me feel better. Of course, I would not ignore your warnings, and I certainly appreciate warnings. My main concern was being taken off again without warning. But now that I know your stance on it, I feel a bit better.



Sounds good again. I was more worried about everything getting wiped rather than one or two posts, as it was the first time, but I can see that is not the case, so I will stop worrying about that as well.

The (c) issues don't bother me, because I know (c) law quite well. My only concern was this forum's rules on (c), and that has been explained now. Thanks Tux, and everyone else in this thread for helping me calm down.