Continued Conspiracy of Copyright Violation by Members

No one rationalises theft as well as a thief. :-)

I thought that was a pretty good post Chuck Stevenson. Mainly in the responses to it, showing that a lot of people only care only about the laws that suit them. I'm the same and tend to take most images on the net as I need them, not sure I have profitted from them at all. Nah, pretty sure I haven't as I am aware of the issue. However that doesn't stop me from admitting the validity of your post. Gotta remember that a lot of people today think that downloading music through p2p is a perfectly acceptable right, so a few avatar pics in context barely rate a fraction of a second reflection before clicking Save as...

Is this a joke? hmmmm....

Oh well for what its worth i think this is a mute point.

AVATAR BY: KingLizard "the best"

Wow. Never realized that right clicking 'Save As' would land me in the lecture seat of someone that works in a big building "5 days a week"..

Thanks for the subtle lecture .. really .. I'm going to delete my avatar and swiftly replace it with one of my own..

Is this one okay?



^^ If every artistic person like me would make their own avatars.. ATS would be a much better ... pre-schoolish.. place

Oh, and don't anyone even THINK of trying to take my artwork.. I'll so meet you in that 'big building' to get it back.

[edit on 8/29/2005 by QuietSoul]

So showing I'm a fan of say Disney or World of Warcraft or My beloved sports team the Leafs I am a thief by using copyrighted material as an avatar? Puhleese. What gain or benefit do I get from partaking is such a practice? What loss to the holders? Continued exposure and free advertising I'm a naughty boy. To be even naughtier I'm gonna put back my copyrighted Avatar that I shamelessly stole from Warcraft 3 (Well JAK did and I use it)

[edit on 29-8-2005 by sardion2000]

Dear Thread Starter



In my humblest opinion Call the cops.














or a whaaaaaaaambulance, you can decide.

Love it. Obviously you are a great artist!!!

Originally posted by dgtempe
(Bestest picture in the whole world excluded from quote)

Love it. Obviously you are a great artist!!!

Ok. I asked nicely. You just reproduced my picture. Did you ask? Hmm? No U2U in my inbox.. HMMmm? Next thing I know, my avatar is going to end up on Avatars.com .. sigh.. some people will stoop to no end..

Originally posted by Dulcimer
Alas, I am in danger.

Danger of ...... hmm.

No comment.

I guess we shouldnt post article sources either. Whats the difference.

Research is your friend

The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment;

and

summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report

That would be the difference, Dulcimer.

(And my use of said passages appears to qualify as "fair use")

there's a lot of people on I-95 this morning who were pretty pissed off at ya . You got me conscious about going 5 over the speed limit so I knocked it down to 55 mph! On this road right here were most go at least 80:



That's okay, there have been a lot more signs saying "obey the speed limit" and law enforcement these days. As a result, I haven't seen as many of these:



...which was also from I-95.

Hm, this "law" thing might actually have a purpose though it's not obvious most of the time.

My recommendation on the bandwidth pirates is to read the material first. If it says "COPYRIGHT" across it, please ask. Most will not give you the option to 'save as' if the author knows what they're doing. Better still, if you love the picture so much that you want to keep it... buy it! I know that goes against every moral a pirate holds dear, but, it's certainly a way to keep things fair. As a reader and an author, it's the right thing to do in my opinion. Now, what else do I have around here that I owe money for...


P.S: Love the original avatar you have Quiet Soul! You should use that.

[edit on 30-8-2005 by saint4God]

Easy enough to fix that problem, just stick your nickname on it.

As for orginal works most the avatars I see here are purloined off the internet and unless they are trying to profit from another's work, there isn't a much of anything that can be done about it legally. Duplicates will be abundant from stock images.

Common courtesy dictates you should take the time to create your own avatar.

[edit on 30-8-2005 by Regenmacher]

what constitutes as a "stock image"?

Personally I think the court needs to review copyrights again. If they're going to do nothing about it nor care, it should not be law. I know there was a law in a nearby town I grew up where you "couldn't park your horse in front of city hall". I don't think there's been a horse there in 100 years...

Originally posted by Chuck Stevenson
Over the months I have quietly sent a few U2U's to members of the board advising them that images they use in their Avatars are legally copyrighted and therefore protected and restriced in use by the copyright owners.

Imagine that, a self-imposed avatar police right here on ATS !! WOOHOO !!

Dude, it's an AVATAR !! We're not talking about sharing pirated music, or taking others' artwork and placing ones own name on it and selling for profit.

Is this the only thing you have to do? Worry about what other people are doing? I mean jeez man, you even U2U'd them?

What are you going to do? Take us to court over something you don't own? Turn us in to the Avatar Copyright Intelligence Agency? Contact the copyright holder and cry to them? Of which would gain much laughter directed at you above what's here, because it is an AVATAR!!

To whoever it was that said to "get a hobby or get laid", thanks alot, coffee all over the keyboard !!!!! lol

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go find another avatar, one that is bloody well COPYRIGHTED!!!

Misfit

[edit on 30-8-2005 by Misfit]

Originally posted by saint4God
what constitutes as a "stock image"?

A stock image is a royalty free image. The general rule is if you don't want your orginal images used by others, don't put them on the internet where they can be freely copied and resused. Watermark it or stick your name on it if your so worried about someone else liking your image. www.sxc.hu...

Me thinks it is a bizarre hoarding deviancy that inflates the ego to say, "This is MINE ALL MINE!"...so much for karma.

Coming next week, will the Art Gestapo be reactivated?



[edit on 30-8-2005 by Regenmacher]

This explains why I caught my dog slapping paw prints all over some legal-sized papers the other day! She's gonna sue me for using her image without her permission! And the fine print said it was an 'unbecoming likeness'! I beg to differ!

To the original poster: I hear what you're saying. If the copyright holders on these pictures feel infringed, it may very well be within their right to sue. However, I doubt they would. I'm one who would not download music against the will of the artist, as I believe it's theft, so I hear you. I hope you're not too upset about all the ribbing. I think it's not seen as a very important matter. And if you don't want to use copyrighted material, don't. You'll notice I don't either.

Originally posted by Regenmacher
A stock image is a royalty free image. The general rule is if you don't want your orginal images used by others, don't put them on the internet where they can be freely copied and resused. Watermark it or stick your name on it if your so worried about someone else liking your image. www.sxc.hu...

Good deal! Thanks Regenmacher, that clears it up a lot for me.




[edit on 30-8-2005 by saint4God]

To all the copyright zealots. Fair Use ain't going away. SO(you know SkepticOverlord 1/3 owner of ATS) has explicitly allowed the use of copyrighted photographes due to in large part Legal Precedent. Yes it still does leave us open to being sued but we have a great chance of fighting off any attempts at censorship. If you don't want your image to be used by your fans then don't put it on the internet, very simple. Playing the morality game with something that has already been decided in the courts just makes you look silly.

Copyright hoarders are basically very very narcissistic, they feel the value of their worth is by how much "stuff" they can own and control. "Fair Use" to them is the enemy, they would love it if they could snuff out Comedic Fair Use in shows like The Daily Show. They would love to make it so you have to buy a licence to take a picture of a privately owned monument from public property. If anyone can't see where this is headed then I suggest you stick your head back in the sand and let us sane people deal with the problems the monopolistic bastards have brought onto us.

BTW Copyright hoarders are very rarely actual artist's, most of the hoarders are companies like Disney who are trying desperately to change IP law so Mickey Mouse doesn't enter public domain...ever. Not that i'm a fan but that just seems wrong.

[edit on 30-8-2005 by sardion2000]

i'm
glad
i
never
had
an
avatar.



:

I have asked an unnamed person on the forum to make an avatar for me.... Something "orientally"... NOthing yet, but I am sure, based on evidence, that it will be beautiful when it arrives. Until then.... I have nothing to worry about, I guess.

A little deeper now...

When a person reads a post, or enters a thread they wil do either one of two processes, identify the poster and their avatar then read the post, or read the post and then identify the poster and their avatar. After a while one begins to identify a specific avatar-image (visual association) as 'belonging' to a certain individual. Take Marge for example, long time users will always be able to recognize Marg's posts because of the stylized renderings of various females Marg uses, SoulJa on the other hand uses an an Avatar-image from the last Star Wars(tm) Film. When visual association takes place, the reader will eventually not scan the Name of the poster, but identify the post by the Avatar-image. This allows readers to scan down a long list of posts quickly in order to read selected posts.

Do you understand 'Visual Association' now?

Star Wars(tm)

Ahh that was the best part of that post.

My avatar is down ! I am not dulcimer anymore.