I want to know how to do particular effects to a photograph...

Is it cool to link another person's art work in an effort to discuss with the community here and figure out how they did a particular enhancement?

If so, should one post just a link to it, or should one post the pic itself within the thread?

If I knew the term to describe it, i would just use that term, but I have no idea what these effects I am wanting to find out more about, are called.

New here and not wanting to infringe on anyone's copyrights, or pose any liability to gimpchat.

Please advise. Thank you.

This is a good question, and I don't really have a solid answer, since there are so many unwritten rules related to this question. So, I guess this is a start...

If someone uses my artwork, I'd at least like to know about it, beforehand. So, when I use someone else's artwork, I'll email them, leave a comment on their website, etc and ask for permission and state my intentions. Most have replied positively, a few never responded at all, and one photographer said I could use his work but had to attribute a link/comment to him as the original author. Those who don't respond or say no, I don't use their work. This is the approach I have used over the years.

I see not problem to linking to another site (do this all the time for reference reasons); most people would value you linking to their site since why else do they even have a presence online. Do see a problem embedding that actual image on site if it's no yours or you are not given permission to do so.

I can give a little insight into the legal side of the question.

If an image, photo or work of art is published without a copyright notice or a specific license, the image becomes public domain. This holds true for computer code (i.e. scripts) as well. In that case, the image can be copied freely, modified and used for private and commercial purposes.

Many images (and scripts) are released under some form of copyright or license, such as Creative Commons (CC) or General Public License (GPL)

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. On a side note, I've been running various forums and blogs for 10 years and I can't say that I've ever received a take down notice. That could change tomorrow, I suppose.

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.

GnuTux, does this include watermarked images? I mean, isn't an artist saying, by placing watermarks on their images, this is copyrighted? It's sort of fuzzy, but I see it being done on a large scale these days.

Mahvin if you remove the watermark then there would be a problem, but I woudl guess, if you just leave the watermark be, then it is fine

My question actually is, does a watermarked image fall under the fair use law? Like a company promoting a product with an image, although watermarked. I mean, try messing with Walt Disney and see what happens...

I shy away from MOST watermarked images. The only watermarked images I dabble with is when 20 different stock sites claim to own the same image. Then I'm thinking, let's see this get argued in court, because all the stock sites will no doubt get subpoeaned.

The photographs I have questions about appear on a online selling venue site, similar to eBay.

So instead of embedding into a thread here, I can safely just provide a link. And that would pertain to a watermark image too. Just a link is fine, correct? That way, we can discuss the linked photograph, without anyone participating on the thread, actually embedding it. This is allowed. Correct?

In theory, as soon as you create a work of art or snap picture with your camera, it belongs to you. The question is how do you protect your work. Clearly, the artist or photographer who is watermarking their images are doing so the prevent others from using their images but I think it's up in the air as to whether that alone would be enough to protect you in court. It certainly couldn't hurt, though. It would be a signal that it shouldn't be reproduced and I'm sure it would discourage peeps.

The best method to protect yourself is to register your work (or collection of works) with Library of Congress (which costs about $45). You can register all of your images and art for one fee by specifying them as a "collection of works". I've did this several times with collections of music I've written.


Absolutely, that is allowed and in that case, there are no legal issues with reproducing the work. However, if the image is released under CC or GPL, then it's fine to upload the image here (or elsewhere) and embed it into your post, and in most cases, modify it to your hearts content.

Modifying, combining and republishing Public Domain, CC or GPL images is legal, commonplace and perfectly acceptable. Some exceptions to that may be that it can't be used for commercial purposes. It's usually part of a license that the original author be given credit when their work is modified and/or reposted.

Well, just about any copyrighted material is acceptable under "fair use". For example, if someone posted an image of Micky Mouse here and we all came along and gave our opinion and critique of the artwork, that would be acceptable under "fair use". But, if Disney disagrees and tells us to take it down, we would have to be willing to fight them in court over it.

It basically boils down to this, you can post pretty much anything, until the copyright holder says you can't. You can probably win in court if it's truly "fair use" but you'll need deep pockets to prove that.

Great!

Just to clarify, I have no interest in linking someone else's art and then enhance it. I am looking to figure out how the art being linked produced a particular effect, learning what the name of the effect is and figuring out how I would go about reproducing the effect on my own photographs.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sounds good and to the site.

I'll bet Gimp Chat members can point you in the right direction.

Yes i was also going to mention this very factor.Rights to fair use are going to vary widely from country to country.
But here is another question - If i use another persons work to be creative or in this case to teach, and the copy written material is from another country but my country allows it's use due to the fair use act.Can i use it as long as i reside in the USA?
That has got to be a very shady area i imagine.

In all fairness i would say just use it to teach , criticize, or link to it and if the user decides it needs to come down.So be it.

On another note you can use any of my work for whatever purpose you wish.

Excellent source of information Jolie thanks!

You should follow the laws of the country you reside in.


Shady is right. The fact of the matter is that "fair use" means nothing to the average person. You can be 100% in compliance with "fair use" laws but if a corporate lawyer sends you a take down notice threatening to sue, what are you going to do? It will cost you 1000s of dollars to begin to mount a defense. So, unless you are a person of means, you're over a barrel. You'll be forced to remove the item in question because they carry the bigger stick. It doesn't really matter what the law is.

C'est la vie.