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Tubewalker: The Tube, on Foot

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Mike Voitenko

Subject: Copyright
Posted: 26 Oct 2004 2:20 pm


Dear Mr.Moxon!
Thanks for wonderfull article on Alang ship-breaking yard, can't you say "yes" to publishing this article on News Agency "Rosbalt" site www.rosbalt.ru in russian? Of course linked to you and with kind of introduction of your personality for russian audience, which - alas - doesn't know much about your site and your very interesting works.
Thanks,
Mike Voienko
ruslink@mail.ru

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Mark Moxon

Subject: Copyright
Posted: 26 Oct 2004 7:14 pm


Hi Mike.

Please check your email. Here's what I just sent you:

That would be fine, and if you want to use the photos from the article as well, that's no problem. If you can credit me and link to my site, and put in the fact that the article is copyright Mark Moxon, then that would be great. If you could also send me a link, I'd be very grateful.

Thank you very much for asking - it's amazing how many people don't bother to get permission first!

Best wishes,

Mark

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Danielle

Subject: copyright on photos...
Posted: 27 Oct 2004 1:55 am


Now that's a very interesting topic... I was just wondering about and thought maybe you could help me out on this one... I note your photos have the copyright thingie on them but what about all the millions of people who post photos on the internet in their websites ect... if you right click, you can send as email or heck, even save the darn photo to your own compuer files... if a newspaper publishes such a photo, do you have to pay them, credit them, or what? Do these people have any rights to their photos once they have posted them online?]

Thanks,
Danielle

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Mark Moxon

Subject: Copyright
Posted: 27 Oct 2004 5:49 pm


Hi Danielle.

Copyright is quite simple, really, but it's amazing how many people don't get it! Basically, anyone who produces a piece of work, be it a photo, an article or whatever, automatically owns the copyright on it (unless they do it as part of a job, in which case their employer generally owns the copyright). This means that it's against the law for anyone else to do pretty much anything with that piece of work without the specific permission of the copyright holder.

Publishing something on the Web doesn't change this in any way. If I take a photo with my camera, scan it in and put it on the Web, then technically it's illegal for anyone to right-click on that image, save it, print it, email it to their friends and so on. That image is my copyright, and just because I've put it on the Web doesn't mean I've given anyone permission to make copies of it. In practice nobody is going to get heated about visitors saving images to their hard disk, but if they started making money out of those images, that would be a different matter.

The big problem is that because it's so easy to copy things from the Web, and because the chances are so slim of being found out, people tend to assume that it's OK. It isn't, though: every time you use something from a website that's in copyright, you're breaking copyright law.

I put copyright notices on my photos because then it's easier to demonstrate to ISPs that someone has stolen my work, though in practice I'd be very unlikely to care that much. You don't have to add a copyright notice to your photos to put them in copyright, as copyright is assigned automatically; I just like stating my authorship. The other reason (and probably the more important one!) is that it gets my name out there on a bunch of cool photos, which might drive traffic my way. 😀

Finally, because it's illegal to reuse copyright content without permission, those who know the law (such as professional publishers) always ask permission before using anything. Luckily I'm a nice guy, so when people like Mike come along and ask me if they can use my stuff, then as long as they're not going to make money exploiting my work, and as long as I don't mind my stuff appearing on their site or in their publication, I tend to grant permission. After all, it's all good exposure for my portfolio. 😁 Then again, if I found out that someone had used my content without permission and they should know better, I'd call the lawyers. 😀

Hope this all makes sense...

Best wishes,

Mark

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Danielle

Subject: copyright on photos
Posted: 27 Oct 2004 11:52 pm


Hi Mark...
That was very helpful... very informative and I appreciate your taking the time to help me out on this one.
Thank you!
Danielle

Post a Reply

Mark Moxon

Subject: Copyright
Posted: 28 Oct 2004 11:07 am


Hi Danielle.

No problem. I used to deal with a lot of copyright issues when I worked at the BBC, so it's all become a bit second nature to me.

What a worrying thought... 😉

Mark

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