Copyrights, piracy and more

[ChiSoxKeith]

So I've never done a photobook before and I want to put together one from my most recent trip. Trying to do a little bit more than the basic layouts I bought some Disney themed Digital scrapbooking kits from a person online. I got the stuff in the mail yesterday and I don't know if I should be angry, disappointed, or amused.

It appears that the seller simply bought some Disney stickers and other themed paper at a scrapbooking store, scanned them in on the computer, and are reselling the scans as CDs.

Ok, shame on me for buying it, that's not why I'm mad.

When I opened the package, there was a sticker over the CD admonishing me to not copy what was on the disc for anything other than my own personal use. That the seller did not grant me a commercial license for the images / scrapbooking pages on the disc. Then on the disc, in the root folder and every other folder on the disc were .txt files with the same admonision and an image file that had the warnings.

But these are pirated images! Clearly the person is not an authorized Disney partner, and they have the guts to warn me not to pirate their pirated imagery!

This brings up a similar situation (and here's where it's more photography related) when I went to my Aunt's house. She had some shots taken of her grandkids (both born this year) and the rest of the family. The photographer provided preview images on a disc via a slideshow. There were HUGE watermarks over every image to preven my Aunt from copying the images, but then the photographer has music playing over the slideshow. I'm FAIRLY certain that the photographer did not get licensed music rights from a handful of top 40 country artists for distribution on this DVD.

I just never like hypocrisy. If you're going to sell your images and your work, AND you're going to go overboard trying to ensure your stuff doesn't get pirated, DON'T go out and steal other people's stuff in the process.

 

[boBQuincy]

I would be amused that the seller has the audacity to include all the anti-piracy messages in some pirated material.

There's just no honor in piracy anymore. Keep to the Code!

 

[MICKEY88]

There's just no honor in piracy anymore. Keep to the Code!

"the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules"

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the things that the seller pirated were themselves created without the proper licensing from Disney. And if you had purchased scrapbook materials that were licensed by Disney, I think you would still need a license from Disney to sell your creations.

 

[AlbertZeroK]

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the things that the seller pirated were themselves created without the proper licensing from Disney. And if you had purchased scrapbook materials that were licensed by Disney, I think you would still need a license from Disney to sell your creations.

This is where it gets funny, if you take a licensed object and make another you can sell it. For example, if you bought disney stickers and made a frame from them, you could sell the frame legally - you couldn't make copies of the stickers and sell them though.

But most people don't have a good idea of photography copyright. I always watermark my images, most people are okay with that. But I've run into more than one client who has no idea what copyright is.

Oh, the reason the license is on their is to make the product look legal.

 

[ssanders79]

"the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules"

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Looking closer at the images, the pirate didn't even do a good job of photoshopping out the (Circle C) Disney copyright notices on every image. If you look you can see remnants of the copyrights she attempted to obliterate out.

 

[Experiment_626]

Looking closer at the images, the pirate didn't even do a good job of photoshopping out the (Circle C) Disney copyright notices on every image. If you look you can see remnants of the copyrights she attempted to obliterate out.

Arrrrrrr! It were hard to use the clone tool smoothly when 40-foot swells are tryin' to give you the heave-ho down to Davy Jones, it were!

Scott

 

[photo_chick]

Last time I checked EK Success had the license for Disney paper scrapbook materials. Just buy them and do a little violating of you own. (that was a joke and I am in no way condoning copyright violation)

The thing is, some people see doing this as crating their own clip art. And they don't see it as illegal because there is this preposterous belief out there that if you take something and make a few changes then it is now your art. It goes right along with the one that says if you don't make money for it then it's not copyright violation.

 

[Kphoto]

Here's an article I wrote to help explain the difference between personal use & commercial licensing. If you want to use someone else's work, and it's not licensed for personal or commercial use, you need to get a copyright release from the artist or photographer.

http://karenmillerphoto.blogspot.com/2010/09/desktop-publishing.html

Karen

 

[raysnkaysmom]

pirating aside...
you can purchase music to place on slideshows