irrelevant to the game.

but does anyone know if I take a picture of a truck online. Crop the truck out of the picture, and use it in another if that infringement?

or take any image of google search and take parts of the image and use it.

probably.

^

SOME CONSIDERATIONS THOUGH INCLUDE INTENDED USE (COPYRIGHT LAW DOES ALLOW FOR "FAIR USE" ALTHOUGH THAT IS SUBJECT TO INTERPRETATION). IF BY "USE IT" YOU MEAN INCLUDE IT IN MATERIALS THAT ARE PROMOTING YOUR BUSINESS OR OTHERWISE "COMMERCIAL" USE, THEN YES THAT IS SLAM-DUNK COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT. IF YOU ARE USING IT FOR ARTISTIC PURPOSES THAT COULD BE CONSIDERED A "DERIVATIVE WORK" OR ARE USING IT FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES, IT BECOMES LESS CLEAR, AND MORE LIKELY THAT YOU ARE WITHIN "FAIR USE" DOCTRINE.

REGARDLESS, CONSIDER ATTRIBUTION. IF YOU ARE REPRESENTING IT AS IF YOU CREATED THE IMAGE, YOU ARE TAKING CREDIT FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S WORK.

DISCLAIMER: I AM NOT A LAWYER, NOR DO I PLAY ONE ON TV

"Fair Use" is about the most unclear law in the world, because it's been left intentionally vague so that each case can be interpreted on a case-by-case instance.

That being said, what Bill said is pretty fair.

To add to it: If you're using this for commercial purposes, or if the original creator was using it for commercial purposes, get permission/buy rights or go take a similar picture that you can use that you have the rights to. You may not get caught, but ultimately, you're making money off someone else's creation

If it's non-commercial use and the original owner is just some dude who took a picture, then you're far more likely (but not guaranteed) to be in the clear, but I'll echo Bill's stance that attribution is still a good idea.

YES YOU ARE, YES YOU DO ! :D

TAN is gay

BUT DID YOU STAY AT A HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS LAST NIGHT?

http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=abc_classy

It depends on where you take the image from.

If it is not listed under a freely-copyable license, such as Creative Commons, or in Public Domain, then what you are doing is definitely a violation of copyright, as it will be considered a Derivative Work. If no copyright information is listed, then by default, the law (mostly Berne Convention) applies the maximum copyright protection, which lasts for 50 years past the death of the author of said work.

For example, anything you submit to a wikipedia is under Creative Commons; you must certify that whatever you submit to a wiki will be under this copyright so it may be freely copied. Reddit specifies that all submitted user content still belongs fully to the original owner.

The submission of user content to a public location is one example of implied permission to copy/host/reproduce, that is, the granted permission (to the website) to host a copy of the work is implied by the act of voluntary uploading.

For the most part though, people are only concerned with the "reproduce/distribute" part of copyright, if you take an image online, save it, and use it for your own purposes without reproducing the image anywhere, in all likelihood, that is fair use. (As is the case for recording TV - see Betamax case). Copyright's intention is to enable the creator to receive compensation for their work for a limited amount of time.


Disclaimer: IANAL.