When I started on Twitter, I didn’t want to use my own face as an avatar, so I searched for something else to use. I found this image through a Google image search, and loved it, so I used it. It seems to me that people on message boards everywhere are using images that are likely copyrighted - is my avatar a problem?
I’ve changed it to a picture of my cat, and I contacted the artist for permission to use the image as an avatar. I’m curious what the real rules are for this sort of thing. Why are so many people using pictures from a Google image search as avatars and not being sued half to death for copyright stuff?
The rules are simply the rules of copyright. An avatar may or may not qualify as fair use, but very likely would not in typical use.
In general lawsuits aren’t necessary for handling small copyright disputes. The DMCA created a process for handling complaints, and it works pretty well.
We don’t know how many people are using copyrighted images without permission, nor how many of those receive takedown notices, so we can’t draw any conclusions about numbers.
A lawsuit has to be based on some kind of damages. My guess is that the average Internet/Twitter user wouldn’t be worth even a fraction of the legal costs of pursuing them. Even a cease and desist letter is probably more effort than it’s worth.
I am sure that, for many of the images on the internet, particularly ones like that one, the creator never had any expectation of making any royalty money off it anyway, and probably does not care (or is even rather proud) when it gets re-used by someone else. Trying to collect royalties would be much more trouble than it would be worth. Media corporations and professional photographers and artists may care about copyright. Most other people, many of whom have created images that are on the web, don’t.
Thanks. I know that. I’ve been here for several years. As wonderful as the SDMB is, there are a few other places I frequent online, Twitter being one of them, that allow the use of avatars and profile photos. Which is how the question came up.
That’s the part I’m most curious about. How often people are asked to remove the image, or taken to court.
Like I said in the OP, I took down the image because I didn’t want to be using someone’s work without permission. I have asked for permission and will wait and see.
Often, though, it’s difficult to determine the origin of an image found through a Google search. A specific photo can show up dozens of times on various blogs and websites. If it’s impossible to determine the creator of an image, what happens then? How does one obtain permission or give credit?
Obligatory IANAL, but I’ve always felt that the key issue is always money. Using a copyrighted image as a Twitter avatar is sort of like putting it on a T-shirt you ironed-on yourself (something I’ve done many times). Technically speaking wearing this ‘bootleg’ T-shirt in public is probably a violation of fair use, but nobody’s gonna care. Not unless you start printing up hundreds of them and selling them. Then you’re committing an obvious (and fairly serious) copyright violation. Also, let’s say that your online presence grows from Twitter to eventually a blog or YouTube channel and you start getting paid for banner ads while still using your copyrighted avatar. Again, you’d potentially be in serious trouble.
It all comes down to money. If there’s no money (or serious press coverage) involved no one’s going to care. Keep in mind though, that there’s always the chance that some avant garde ‘ar-teast’ will react very litigiously if they find some piece of their art being used anywhere w/o permission. As said above The Straight Dope Board doesn’t allow avatars, but if they did I’d be using this image…
I think everyone is missing a key point: There are no images from Google Images. You can use Google Images to find images, but every one of those images comes from some other source, and every one of those sources has its own rules for what they want done or not done with their images.
Others have briefed the law: might be copyrighted, probably not fair use, little likelihood of discovery and even less of punishment. But another factor is more philosophical: whether you think of our current system of copyright as intrinsic—thou shalt not reap where thou hast not sown—or as a manmade compromise set up to ensure distribution of useful concepts in Elizabethan England, a system that might not be perfectly adapted to today’s needs and issue.
An early scofflaw of such things was none other than Thomas Edison. As the inventor of the phonograph and the movie camera he felt that hardware was all that mattered. The idea of ‘intellectual property’ was simply utter nonsense, without his machines there wouldn’t be anything, so he openly & flagrantly copied, reproduced & sold all other artists’ works.
He freely plagiarized many of his hardware “inventions” too. He certainly was not the original inventor of the movie camera (or the incandescent light bulb - the phonograph, maybe).
Like I said in the avatar script thread, it’s really only a problem if you piss someone off. In the U.S., what’s going to happen is that the board will get a DMCA notice, and then will take it down to avoid liability. Then the owner, satisfied that the image is no longer being used, doesn’t do anything else.
(Note, the Avatar script is a bit different in that it DELIBERATELY pulls images from random sources without checking their copyright.)
And I’ll add an additional “Don’t use an image that comes from a country with fucked up courts and if you ever plan to go to said country.”
The main thing is that most places don’t really care if you use their content as an avatar, as long as you don’t hotlink it and take their bandwidth. Pictures of actual people are more likely to be a problem, as are pictures where prints (digital or not) are being sold online. The best ones, IMO, are characters from works, seeing as the characters themselves are such a small part of the work that it’s usually not usually a problem–unless they are trademarked like Disney’s.
You just have to use common sense on what images will matter, and be willing to change if someone complains. Because almost no one actually draws their own.
And probably because if the big boys really started to throw around lawsuits over avatars on a large scale, they might create enough of a backlash to get copyright law changed in ways they wouldn’t like.
