Using images on AboutUs

Please note that I'm not a lawyer; but, have had a bunch of discussions with them regarding copyright in U.S. and Canadian laws. As AboutUs's HQ and main servers are located in the United States, that is the laws we must follow.

Images to be used on AboutUs must fall under one of the following categories:

  • The image has been released to the Public Domain.
  • The image has been released under the Creative Commons (without a non-commercial tag).
  • Using the image qualifies as Fair use.

If you have a question that's not answered here post it on my talk page or catch me on IRC and I'll add in the answer. --Simon | talk

Finding Images

Some great places to find public domain or Creative Commons pics are

Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia

  • A lot of the photos are taken from somewhere else, please remember to link to the original source.

Flickr

  • Click the Creative Commons checkbox and the Find content to use commercially checkbox.
  • When viewing images look at the toolbar on the right of the image

flickrdonotuseit.png

  • If it says (C) All rights reserved like the above image then you can't use it on AboutUs.

flickruseit.png

  • If it says Some rights reserved then you can use it, just remember to link to the picture.

Wikihow

  • You must have a Wikihow.com account to search.

Gimp-Savvy/Governmental Orgs.

  • Gimp-Savvy.com is a site promoting GIMP, an open source image editing program. They have links to thousands of partially categorized images from NASA, FWS and NOAA. Which are U.S. government organizations so there images automatically become Public domain.
  • Likewise, you can also visit the sources directly for images:

Fair Use

  • Promotional Items: DVD, Book, and CD covers all fall under fair use if you're talking about the item. Movie posters would also fall under fair use.

Tagging Images

  • Always include a link to where you got the image and how you're allowed to use it. If you want to go a little extra you can use one of the following tags.

Questions

  • Is it enough to simply put links to the original image page and the Creative Commons licence in the summary, as I've done for Image:Writing on the wall.jpg? And how should we credit fair use images like book covers? Thanks for writing this page, by the way. It's really been helpful. FatimaRaja 23:55, 29 August 2007 (PDT)


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