Website Image T-Shirt Prints - Unknown Image Orgins

[nickyb]

I have a website that displays random images from a database of several thousand images. The images are funny random images that people have added captions to or edited in photoshop.

I believe these images are public domain and were created for anyone to see and enjoy, but I'm not sure if this applies to the internet.

Anyways, I have seen the images on my site appear on several different websites in the past.

My question is, would it be legal to offer any of these images to be printed on a t-shirt? The sale would not be made through my website, but another service that does t-shirt printing. But they do pull the image off my website to print on the shirt, and I would be receiving about a 40% commission.

These images are widely re-used and distributed over the internet, and there's no clear indication who the original owner or publisher is for any of the images.

This seems like a pretty big grey area to me, so I was just wondering if this is something I can legally do.

The site is hosted and operated out of the U.S. by the way.

 

[army judge]

If you're hosted outside of the US, there is very little that can be done to the host.

But, if you're in the US, this coud get you sued.

In fact, the rascals and con-artists will appear seconds after you sell the first shirt.

Can they prevail?

Depends.

If you want to avoid trouble, just don't do it.

Besides, why would you risk a lawsuit on the permission or advice from the Internet?

If you're reluctant or have doubts, just say no!!!!

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I have a website that displays random images from a database of several thousand images. The images are funny random images that people have added captions to or edited in photoshop.

I believe these images are public domain and were created for anyone to see and enjoy, but I'm not sure if this applies to the internet.

Anyways, I have seen the images on my site appear on several different websites in the past.

My question is, would it be legal to offer any of these images to be printed on a t-shirt? The sale would not be made through my website, but another service that does t-shirt printing. But they do pull the image off my website to print on the shirt, and I would be receiving about a 40% commission.

These images are widely re-used and distributed over the internet, and there's no clear indication who the original owner or publisher is for any of the images.

This seems like a pretty big grey area to me, so I was just wondering if this is something I can legally do.

The site is hosted and operated out of the U.S. by the way.

1. There is no grey area. Anything you see was created by someone - correct? As such, you must assume that since there is an owner, this isn't a case of "finders keepers" and you can do whatever you want with it, correct? Giving you an example, what if you saw a famous picture by the photographer Ansel Adams that was uploaded to your website with no indication as to who took the picture or created the image? See where I'm going with this?

2. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act specifically allows you to host images if you're a platform as an "Internet Service Provider." The moment you get a notice to take down an image from an alleged owner per DMCA Takedown Notice Requirements, by law you must take down that image.

3. Many people do whatever they want with images they think are in the public domain. They might be right and the images may be in the public domain. But if you're wrong and a copyright holder discovers what you're doing, you'll be liable for copyright infringement - and there will very likely be damages for your intentional infringement (you knew what you were doing, just not who owned the copyrighted images.) Why? Because copyright does not require intent or knowledge, just that the violation occurred. Why is it so strict? For many reasons and, in case you missed the SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) protests to protect big business, you might want to read more about it.

Here is a snippet from Wikipedia:

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a United States bill introduced by U.S. Representative Lamar S. Smith (R-TX) to expand the ability of U.S. law enforcement to fight online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods. Provisions include the requesting of court orders to bar advertising networks and payment facilities from conducting business with infringing websites, and search engines from linking to the sites, and court orders requiring Internet service providers to block access to the sites. The law would expand existing criminal laws to include unauthorized streaming of copyright material, imposing a maximum penalty of five years in prison.