Pink Poogle Toy Forum

First, I did look around for a while for a question similar to this, so please forgive me if I have overlooked anything.
This is more of a general question, not strictly related to any particular site. Anyway, on to the question before anyone helpful gets bored reading my long intro:
Is it a violation of copyright to use someone else's images in your avatar? I have seen various Harry Potter and anime characters used in avatars and signatures, so it seems that this would be okay to do. To give a better idea of what I'm talking about, here is what I intend to do: I want to take an image of a character from a manga and use it in my avatar/signature. I will probably edit the image a bit before using it, but I need to know if it would be a copyright infringement if I use it on here or any other site. I would not necessarily be presenting said image as my own work, so would that make it okay?

Its alright ... just be sure to make the image you have onto your photobucket account or photshack ... or what ever you use .... you dont want to hotlink

Okay, thanks! (I'm so glad I finally got my trusty Photobucket account. It's really convenient. Now I don't have to stumble around online trying to figure out how to get my images where I want them. )

When I took a webdesign class, the rule that our professor stated about images and copyrights was:

1. If you use an image but edit more than 50% (could have been 60%) of it you can pretty much claim it your own. (and that means physically taking pixels of the image and changing them, not just drawing a border or something)

I'm not sure where this is stated, if it's an actual law or more of a rule of thumb but that's what he said to us. Otherwise he said you have to state somewhere on your site that the image is someone elses work.

I actually heard about that law. Hmm, interesting. I'll see if I can find out some more info.

The basic idea is that unless with any file it is stated that, "This image is public domain" then it is copyrighted. Having said that, obviously a lot of people on the forums don't take heed of this fact.

If you've found the image on someone's site and they've specifically asked it not to be taken/used or requested that people contact them before the use I'd suggest doing what the owner has requested as otherwise things like flaming-wars can result.

If however, its an image that a company by rights owns then I'm sure you could probably get away with using it, most companies won't be concerned with the use of their images as long as you don't claim them as your own and you don't gain $$$ from their use. In addition, from what I can gather (as with mp3s of various artists being put on fansites) most companies/groups will actually contact you with a request to remove the said image with a threat of legal prosecution before they do anything serious.

What Charisma said may also be true

Thanks, you've all been very helpful. Medusa, isn't your avatar/signature image from a movie? I take it that it is okay to use images from movies then?
I've found that the artist who made the image I'd like to use has pointed out on his site that he would prefer people not to use his images, so I guess I'll just have to find something else.

Perhaps you could email the artist and ask if you could use the image politely? It probably would not work, but it's worth a try. He may be glad someone asked nicely prior to doing it and allow you to use it. It's worth a shot, but if you would rather not, I hope you find a good image soon.

The images are from the King Arthur movie that is supposed to currently be in cinemas. They're from movie posters (advertising) so I suppose I could claim that and even perhaps that I "own" a copy of the movie posters too (not that I really do but they have desktop downloads on the official site).

Having said that, I'm willing to admit I could well be breaching copyright by using them. I see it as not anything major considering that its publicly available to a certain degree and I'm not using it for profit (not that that is necessarily an excuse) and the people that own the rights to the entire King Arthur movie are more than welcome to request I stop using them *shruggs*

IMHO most people take no heed to copyright at all while others (such as myself) are more than happy to comply with an artist's requests when they don't want their art use. As the probability of getting caught with copyrighted images is small (mp3 and movie piracy is much more concerning and I'd assume a higher priority for law enforcement online) its a matter of personal ethics.

As Lillie said, you could always contact the artist and ask nicely. Explain that you'd like to use the image for an avatar and signature, tell him/her where you'll be using and I sometimes find saying something along the lines of, "I'd quite happily include a link to you're site along with my avatar and signature so people know its your image/art" (as long as you'll follow it through) can also make the artist feel a lot more comfortable as they know you're not trying to "steal" their work.