On Posting Pictures - Hotlinking with IMG Tags, Copyright Issues, and Street Shots

**Amoretti** · November 20th, 2010, 07:09 AM

Gumball, I thought that all images on Google Images were freely available. I must have been mistaken then.

So if you want to post a picture of, say, a movie star or someone like that and you copy a picture of them from Google Images, save it on your computer and host it on your PhotoBucket it would NOT be OK to post it here?

I've done that quite a few times and was always under the impression it was OK as long as it wasn't posted with the IMG tags.

Sorry I'm being such a nitpicker.

I really want to understand this properly so I don't break any rules.

**Gumball** · November 20th, 2010, 08:13 AM

Originally Posted by Amoretti

Gumball, I thought that all images on Google Images were freely available. I must have been mistaken then.

So if you want to post a picture of, say, a movie star or someone like that and you copy a picture of them from Google Images, save it on your computer and host it on your PhotoBucket it would NOT be OK to post it here?

I've done that quite a few times and was always under the impression it was OK as long as it wasn't posted with the IMG tags.

Sorry I'm being such a nitpicker.

I really want to understand this properly so I don't break any rules.

Hey I understand completely. The quirk about Google images is that it's not necessarily a bastion of free to use images. If someone took a photo of you without your permission, for example, labeled the file whatever name they want, and made the site it was on accessible to the Google bots, then your picture, without your permission, would show up if someone searched for the right keyword as it would have been scoured and cataloged.

Often celebrity photos were hosted on other sites, and random people who enjoyed the photos in some way saved them and put them on their own sites. When it comes to celebrities, and if they aren't old black and white photos, I'd err on the side of caution and just use a link, whether it's on another site or on your Photobucket. As newer media photos can be hazy on their specific permission levels, that's why we just try to play it on the safe side.

**LeaM07** · November 20th, 2010, 08:22 AM

Originally Posted by Amoretti

Gumball, I thought that all images on Google Images were freely available. I must have been mistaken then.

So if you want to post a picture of, say, a movie star or someone like that and you copy a picture of them from Google Images, save it on your computer and host it on your PhotoBucket it would NOT be OK to post it here?

I've done that quite a few times and was always under the impression it was OK as long as it wasn't posted with the IMG tags.

Sorry I'm being such a nitpicker.

I really want to understand this properly so I don't break any rules.

If you're not posting with the IMG tags (that is, you're just posting a link to a pic, like http://forums.longhaircommunity.com/...rcommunity.gif), then you can post pretty much anything you want, as long as it's PG-13/safe for work and you're not selling anything in it. This type of linking doesn't steal any bandwidth, so you can link straight from the source, without any sort of photobucket (or whatever) go-between.

**Amoretti** · November 20th, 2010, 08:58 AM

Thanks, Gumball and Lea!

So from now on I'm going to just link to images unless it's an old b/w photo that doesn't have a copyright.

My posts are going to be less interesting though!

**Gumball** · November 20th, 2010, 03:15 PM

Originally Posted by Amoretti

Thanks, Gumball and Lea!

So from now on I'm going to just link to images unless it's an old b/w photo that doesn't have a copyright.

My posts are going to be less interesting though!

Less interesting, or more mysteriously amazing?

**Nenwing** · November 20th, 2010, 08:45 PM

Hmm this is a good thread to read through! I know I get confused as to what is okay/not okay and how to post it properly.

So in most cases it is good to just post a link to what you want someone to see. Unless though, it is YOUR own photo that you have taken. If it is a photo you have taken of say a work of art that is copyrighted, then to be safe it should not be posted as an image. (This is correct?)

Also, my avatar, it is of Last of the Moheicans, I believe it did come from a site with a bunch of avatars to be used, but is this then ok? Are avatars different?

**Amoretti** · November 21st, 2010, 07:18 AM

Less interesting, or more mysteriously amazing?

Gumball

**Gingevere** · November 26th, 2010, 12:36 AM

Question... Is it okay to post copyrighted images in one's album, as long as they are accompanied by the source? That's pretty much citing the image, like in an academic paper.

Sorry if this has been addressed already. I don't have time to read through the entire thread.

**Gumball** · November 26th, 2010, 09:18 AM

Originally Posted by McKanna91

Question... Is it okay to post copyrighted images in one's album, as long as they are accompanied by the source? That's pretty much citing the image, like in an academic paper.

Sorry if this has been addressed already. I don't have time to read through the entire thread.

The short answer is no. Regardless of the source, albums should not be used to host copyrighted images. They should be used to host pictures the user has taken themselves.

**summerjade** · February 2nd, 2011, 07:33 PM

I am having a problem creating an album for my pictures. I have my pictures that I have taken of myself with my camera in my computer. For 2 days now I have tried to download my pictures into my album here at LHC. It tries to download but fails. Any suggestions as to what I might be doing wrong?