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Can I legally watermark images that I didn't create and use them as content?

by Trentor
7 replies
So I've got a question.

You see a lot of sites taking funny or viral images from other places and just slapping on their own logo for use as content.

For example sites like "I can has cheezburger" (the one with the lolcats). I see a LOT of sites doing this and am wondering if this is actually legal and what the deal is with this sort of promotion??

Is there some way to do this safely and completely whitehat?
#content #create #images #legally #watermark
  • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
    Originally Posted by Trentor View Post

    Is there some way to do this safely and completely whitehat?
    The only way I know to do that is to contact the original photographer or image creator and ask them for permission.
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    • Profile picture of the author Trentor
      Originally Posted by rosetrees View Post

      The only way I know to do that is to contact the original photographer or image creator and ask them for permission.
      Yeah but this would be pretty inpracticle if you were trying to do it on a larger scale. I'm just wondering how so many of these big sites do it?

      Is it okay as long as you honor any requests for pics to be removed?

      WeLoveHerb.com is another example... they have tonnes of cannabis related funny pics that they've obviously just found around the internet and they've put their own logo over the top and spread that.

      Like these for example:

      welovetheherb.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/392617_346295662066489_127542827275108_1325826_812 151483_n-1.jpg

      welovetheherb.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Hippie-Dog.jpg

      (Can't post pics yet so had to just post the links)
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      • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
        Originally Posted by Trentor View Post

        I'm just wondering how so many of these big sites do it?

        Is it okay as long as you honor any requests for pics to be removed?
        "Is it ok if I murder someone, so long as I go to prison if I'm caught?"
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      • Profile picture of the author sunray
        It depends on the license. If the image is in public domain, you can do whatever you like with it and you own copyrights of the final product (with the modifications on it).
        If it's GNU (like most of the viral free images), you still can do whatever you like, but you DO NOT own any part of the final product. You received a free image, and anyone may take your version (with your logo or watermark on it), put it on his website, modify even further and so on.
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  • Profile picture of the author godinu
    the whole putting one's watermark on something they don't own thing is funny to me. I've worked in copyright/tm protection for years and there were constantly websites taking images of a certain celebrity and posting them on their site, then slapping their own watermarks on the pics as if they owned them (including pictures which the celeb himself owned, and pictures that were around from the 80s, far before this website, naturally).

    I understand the desire to not have other people take pictures from your site, but seriously, if you don't know where the picture originated, or if you just grabbed it from anywhere online, putting your watermark on it does not make you the copyright owner. Get permission from the owner.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kay King
      Is it okay as long as you honor any requests for pics to be removed?
      Uh - no. Not unless you are willing and able to pay a bill for several thousand dollars for the violation.

      Don't be a fool. What another site does is not relevant - and you don't know where the images on other sites come from. The owner may buy usage right or hire a graphic artist to create the images for him.

      "Finders - keepers" does not apply online. You may not know who an image online belongs to - but you know it isn't yours. Adding a watermark is saying "I stole this image and put my name on it to prove it". How smart is that?

      kay
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