"Lending Out" images to other websites/personal use

[Chuma]

On my personal site I am hosting some photos for a person who asked me to host them on my website as they were related to the topic.

I have had quite a few emails asking if people could use the images on their website (which I have declined) and also if they could use the images for personal use in an offline document for educational purposes (I accepted this as it was a teacher who wanted to make a presentation for their students.)

Does anyone have any comments or advice regarding this issue?

Thanks.

[rcjordan]

Many of the photos on our sites are used with special permission from the owners. I'm sorry, but we do not have the right to authorize further distribution. I have forwarded your request to the owner, along with a request that, if interested, he respond directly to you.

Sincerely,

[korkus2000]

If they are someone elses photos that you are hosting, I would get their permission before giving anyone else permission to use them. Even though you are hosting them they are still the copyright of the creator.

<added>I think RC's response is what I would use for a reply</added>

[rcjordan]

>RC beat me

I cheated korkus, that came out of my "canned replies" inventory --I knew right where it was ...use it all the time.

[Chuma]

I will use rcjordan's reply as the standard message from now on for people asking to borrow the images that I am hosting for their websites.

Thanks.

[mgream]

RC response is ideal, but possibly misses that under doctrine of fair use, the images could be used in limited circumstances without permission needed by the creator. I apologise for being pedantic :-).

For example, using the image in a school assignment, or for eductional purposes, etc.

I'm not sure how you could re-word your canned response (or you could just avoid it).

[rcjordan]

>under doctrine of fair use, the images could be used in limited circumstances without permission needed by the creator.

True enough, but

(A) It's not in the best interest of developing further loans or contributions to be "giving away" someone else's work. The owner may not be believe in fair use.

(B) If you open a dialog, you'll soon find yourself trying to explain (what you understand of) the nuances of copyright. That's fine the first few times, but after that ...Uhhhh, no thanks.

[mgream]

rcjordan:

>(A) It's not in the best interest of developing further
>loans or contributions to be "giving away" someone
>else's work. The owner may not be believe in fair use.

It doesn't matter whether the owner believes in fair use or not: fair use is there by law, and the only way to avoid it is to not publish your work (this is the "trade off" that copyright offers: a monopoly protection for the expression of your work, for the tradeoff that you only get it for a limited duration and subject to various exceptions). There's no way to prevent your work from being used under terms of fair use. There's no concept of "giving away", as fair use is entirely a pull scenario from a users point of view, you can't contract your way out of it. In fact, there are cases where parties have been forced to license their works under reasonable terms because otherwise it's an abuse of a monopoly position for a copyright holder to hold onto a work and refuse to allow it to be used elsewhere ("reasonable terms" is important here).

>(B) If you open a dialog, you'll soon find yourself trying
>to explain (what you understand of) the nuances of copyright.
>That's fine the first few times, but after that ...Uhhhh, no
>thanks.

I agree here :-). Which is why I just include a minor catchpoint on "other than allowed by applicable law" which states the truth but avoids the detail.

Pedantically speaking it is true that

>I'm sorry, but we do not have the right to authorize
>further distribution.

you do not have the right to authorise further distribution. So what you say is correct, you're just leaving out a minor data point. i.e. for completeness, you'd need to use " ... further distribution. You may not use this material our than that allowed by applicable law."

That's probably going beyond that neccessary for most people.

Matthew.